The Vatican said Thursday it had signed a deal with the League of Arab States outlining co-operation aimed at promoting "peace, security and stability." The agreement, signed by the Vatican's senior diplomat Dominique Mamberti and Arab League's Secretary-General Amr Moussa, comes ahead of Pope Benedict XVI's trip to Jordan and Israel from May 8 to 15.
The pact, which covers political and cultural co-operation, will be symbolically sealed when the pope hosts Moussa on Friday, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told AFP. The League's website lists its memmbers as: Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Somalia.