Pope Francis has met with a group of Muslim elders at the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi in what the Vatican says was a "particularly cordial and fraternal" encounter.
The Vatican says the private meeting lasted about 30 minutes, and was followed by a visit of the mosque alongside Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the grand imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar, the seat of Sunni learning. Francis later paid homage at the tomb of the founder of the Emirates.
The Vatican says that during the meeting Monday, Francis and the participants "emphasized the importance of the culture of encounter to reinforce the commitment to dialogue and peace."
Francis is making the first-ever trip to the Arabian Peninsula, the birthplace of Islam, in a bid to strengthen ties with the Muslim world.
