Al-Azhar's grand sheik agrees to meet for talks with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome

(Wed.21 Feb,2007) -One of Sunni Islam's leading clerics has accepted Pope Benedict XVI's invitation to meet for talks in Rome, the Vatican said Feb. 20. Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayyid Tantawi of Cairo's al-Azhar University, a world-renowned center of Islamic scholarship, agreed to the encounter with satisfaction, the Vatican said. No date was announced for the meeting. It would be the pope's highest-profile encounter with an Islamic leader since his September speech in Regensburg, Germany, that sparked controversy and criticism throughout the Muslim world. Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Vatican discastery that coordinates interreligious dialogue, met Sheik Tantawi Feb. 20 in Cairo in what the Vatican described as "a climate of great cordiality" and conveyed the pope's greetings to the cleric. Cardinal Poupard and Sheik Tantawi then reviewed the work of the Joint Committee for Dialogue, which includes representatives of al-Azhar and the Vatican. The committee was to meet Feb. 24 in Cairo for its annual session. Cardinal Poupard also planned to meet with Egypt's religious affairs minister, Hamdi Zaqzuq.