In what will be seen as a significant step in Christian-Jewish relations, Pope Benedict XVI will visit the Synagogue of Rome on 17 January 2010, the Vatican has announced.

Catholic agencies are reporting that Pope Benedict XVI will visit Britain in 2010, after months of speculation on the nature and timing of such a visit. PM Gordon Brown extended a formal invitation to the Pope during a private audience in February.

On a five-day visit to Rome, a Russian Orthodox official in charge of interchurch relations has had a meeting with the Pope - a sign of improved relations between the two churches under Benedict XVI and the new Russian Patriarch.

The Pope has spoken of the "urgent need constantly to defend the environment and the natural world, [and] also to discover its more profound spiritual and religious dimension."

Pope Benedict XVI devoted his address at an open air Mass in Viterbo, Italy, to recalling the deaths of "tens of millions of people" in the Holocaust and the Second World War.

Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out in favour of Palestinian sovereignty in an address in Bethlehem during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He also called for reconstruction and reconciliation in the midst of years of strife and conflict.

Resisting pressure from both Israeli hard-liners and those antagonistic to the Israeli state, the visiting Pope Benedict XVI has come out in support of a genuine Palestinian homeland and has equally condemned anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

As he heads to what could be a sea of controversy in Israel-Palestine, Pope Benedict XVI's Middle East trip has been marked by a strong message of reconciliation and affirmation of hard-pressed historic Christian communities in the region.

Pope Benedict XVI has urged British PM Gordon Brown to push for the establishment of an ethically-grounded financial system at the G20 summit that begins in London on Thurday.