Pope Benedict XVI flies out to the Holy Land on Friday on his first voyage there as pontiff, facing a daunting array of religious and political challenges on the eight-day trip.

The 82-year-old head of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics was due to arrive in the Jordanian capital Amman on the first leg of what has been described as a pilgrimage.

Benedict is to divide his week-long visit between Jordan and Israel, with a stop in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, on Wednesday.

The Pope will visit Amman's Regina Pacis centre for the handicapped and raise the issue of Iraq's Christian minority.

Benedict will speak to Palestinians during a visit to a refugee camp in Bethlehem, believed to be Jesus' birthplace, and visit a children's hospital.

The Pope will follow in the footsteps of John Paul II in 2000, including a stop in Mount Nebo, where the Bible says God showed the Promised Land to Moses.

While the Pope has described his trip as a spiritual pilgrimage, some political and religious groups in the region have already made it clear that they expect more from him.

In Jordan, the opposition Islamic Action Front party again said the Pope was not welcome unless he apologised for remarks he made in 2006, which they say targeted Islam.

"What we want is a change in his policies, so that it is in harmony with the teachings of Jesus about love, peace, justice, equality and condemnations of crimes and Zionist terrorism," party chief Zaki Bani Rsheid told AFP.

In the speech in question, the Pope quoted a medieval Christian emperor who criticised some teachings of the Prophet Mohammed as "evil and inhuman".

He subsequently apologised for the "unfortunate misunderstanding".

The Coalition for Jerusalem, an alliance of Palestinian advocacy groups, on Thursday urged him to denounce what they called atrocities committed against their people by Israel.

"Jerusalem today, and under the eyes and full knowledge of the international community, is witnessing yet another wave of Israel's ethnic cleansing crimes that continue since 1948," they wrote in an open letter.

But the Pope is unlikely to want to further strain relations with Israel.

In recent months, they have clashed over the Pope's decision to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop, Richard Williamson of Britain; and the sainthood dossier of Pope Pius XII.

Israel reviles him for his passive stance during the Holocaust.

Israel, for its part, will work hard to make Benedict's 12th trip as head of the Roman Catholic Church a success.

That would help restore its image after its offensive against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas that killed more than 1400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

As Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fuad Twal, said in a recent interview with CTS News, a Catholic news service: "Each day, each gesture, each encounter and each visit will have a political connotation."

AFP

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