Turkish PM out of town for Pope's historic visit

ANKARA, Nov 1 (Reuters) Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has decided to attend a NATO summit in Latvia instead of staying at home to greet Pope Benedict during his first official visit to a Muslim country, an official said today.

The Turkish government official said Erdogan's absence was not meant as a snub to the German-born Pontiff, adding it was ''unfortunate'' that the two events coincided. Turkey is NATO's only Muslim member.

''A meeting hasn't been scheduled with the Pope because the prime minister is booked to attend a NATO summit on November.

28-29,'' the official told Reuters.

US President George W Bush and other leaders will be in Riga for the NATO talks, which will focus on turning the alliance into a global security organisation.

Pope Benedict's November. 28-Dec. 1 visit was recently thrown into doubt amid Muslim anger over controversial comments he made about Islam.

Some of the strongest criticism of the speech, which appeared to link Islam to violence, came from Turkey, where nationalists and Islamic activists have pushed for his trip tobe cancelled.

Leading Turkish newspaper Sabah said Erdogan was ''escaping the Pope'' and also queried why the minister who oversees religious affairs, Mehmet Aydin, would also be abroad.

The official could not confirm whether Aydin would be away.

Turkey's President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a staunch secularist often at odds with Erdogan, a pious Muslim, extended the invitation to the Pope and will be his host in Ankara.

Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, visited Turkey in 1979, shortly after becoming Pontiff.

Erdogan has publicly welcomed the Pope's visit and often refers to Turkey as a bridge between East and West and between the Muslim and Christian worlds.

Apart from Ankara, Benedict will also visit Istanbul and Ephesus on the Aegean coast, where legend says Mary, Christ's mother, lived after his death.

The main purpose of the Pope's visit is to meet Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual head of the world's Orthodox Christians, in Istanbul, the former Constantinople.

REUTERS PDM RK2300