VATICAN CITY — President Barack Obama has given Pope Benedict XVI a personal letter from ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy.

White House national security aide Denis McDonough said Obama and Benedict discussed Kennedy at the end of a half-hour one-on-one meeting at the Vatican on Friday. Obama asked the pope to pray for Kennedy, a member of one of the United States' most prominent Roman Catholic families and a political ally to Obama.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One that Obama phoned Kennedy after the meeting. The spokesman said the pair talked for about 10 minutes before Obama boarded his airplane to Ghana.

Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, was diagnosed a year ago with terminal brain cancer.