Summary The pope will meet both president and the grand imam, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement
VATICAN CITY (AFP) - Pope Francis is to visit Cairo next month for talks with the grand imam of the capital s famed Al-Azhar mosque, but also to show solidarity with Coptic Christians targeted by violence in Egypt.
The pontiff, co-invited by Egypt s president for the April 28-29 visit, had hosted Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb at the Vatican last May, in a landmark meeting with one of Islam s top clerics.
That encounter was the culmination of a steady improvement in a relationship that had broken down because of a series of spats under Francis s predecessor Benedict XVI.
The current pope has made interfaith dialogue and reconciliation a leading theme of his pontificate and has also overseen an improvement in relations with the Orthodox and Protestant wings of christianity.
The Argentine pope has a long-standing invitation to visit Egypt, issued by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi when he met Francis at the Vatican in 2014.
The pope will meet both the president and the grand imam, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement.
It added that "this important visit will contribute to reinforcing the message of peace as well as the spirit of tolerance and humanity s dialogue between all the religions and the rejection of... terrorism and fanaticism".
Francis will become the second Roman Catholic pope to visit Egypt, following John Paul II s historic trip there in February 2000.
Relations were derailed under Benedict after rows over a 2006 speech in which he was seen as having linked Islam to violence and 2011 comments condemning an attack on a Coptic church in Alexandria which Al-Azhar denounced as meddling in Egypt s affairs.
