Pope Benedict visits Turkey's Blue Mosque

ISTANBUL, Nov 30 (Reuters) Pope Benedict visited Istanbul's Blue Mosque today during his trip to predominantly Muslim Turkey, becoming only the second Roman Catholic Pontiff to ever enter a mosque.

The visit was seen as another gesture of reconciliation by the Pontiff after he infuriated much of the Muslim world with comments taken as indicating he believed Islam was violent and irrational. He denied that was his view of the religion.

His predecessor Pope John Paul II made the first papal visit to a mosque during a trip to Damascus in 2001.

Istanbul's Grand Mufti Mustafa Cagrici escorted Benedict into the Blue Mosque, officially named after Sultan Ahmet and opened in 1616.

The Mufti prayed out loud and the Pope appeared separately to pray with his lips moving.

The Blue Mosque is the most famed mosque in Turkey and a popular tourist attraction. It got its popular name from the fine blue Iznik tiles in the main prayer room.

The mosque stands in Sultan Ahmet Square in the old centre of Istanbul, opposite the Aya Sofya museum which was once the Christian church Hagia Sophia. The Pope visited the mosque after a short tour of Aya Sofya.

Benedict's visit was a late addition to his schedule meant as a gesture of respect for Islam after he angered Muslims with apparently critical comments in a speech in September.

The German-born Pope has already defused much of the tension linked to his visit, his first to a mostly Muslim country, by supporting Ankara's bid to join the European Union and praising Islam as a religion of peace.

REUTERS PB BST2226