Pope Benedict XVI is cheered by wellwishers during his visit to the Lady of Peace Church in Amman, Jordan. The pope expressed respect for Islam Friday and said he hopes the Catholic Church can play a role in Middle East peace. The pontiff is on his first trip to the region, where he hopes to improve frayed ties with Muslims.Pope Benedict XVI is cheered by wellwishers during his visit to the Lady of Peace Church in Amman, Jordan. The pope expressed respect for Islam Friday and said he hopes the Catholic Church can play a role in Middle East peace. The pontiff is on his first trip to the region, where he hopes to improve frayed ties with Muslims.associated press

AMMAN, Jordan — The top religious adviser to Jordan's king thanked Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday for his expression of "regret" after a 2006 speech that many Muslims deemed insulting to Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Prince Ghazni bin Mohammed spoke after giving Benedict a tour of the biggest and newest mosque in Jordan's capital, Amman, his second visit to a Muslim place of worship since becoming pope in 2005. Benedict is in Jordan on his first Middle East tour in which he hopes to improve strained ties with both Muslims and Jews.

The pope angered many in the Muslim world three years ago when he quoted a Medieval text that characterized some of Islam's Prophet Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman," particularly "his command to spread by the sword the faith.

Ghazni, who is also King Abdullah II's cousin, thanked Benedict for the clarification he issued after the speech that the views did not reflect his own opinion but were instead "simply a citation in an academic lecture."

Benedict told the audience of religious leaders and government officials assembled at the King Hussein mosque that Muslims and Christians must strive to be seen as faithful worshippers of God "because of the burden of our common history" that has often been marked by misunderstanding.

The pope said it is often "ideological manipulation of religion sometimes for political ends that is the real catalyst for tension and division and at times even violence in society."

Benedict expressed "deep respect" for Islam on Friday, when he arrived in Jordan on the first day of his Mideast tour, but his comments in 2006 continue to fuel criticism by some Muslims.

Jordan's hard-line Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group, said Friday that they were boycotting the pope's visit because he did not issue a public apology ahead of time as they demanded.

The pope has also had strained ties with Jews that he hopes to improve during his Mideast tour.

Benedict spoke of an "inseparable bond" between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people Saturday when he visited Mount Nebo, the wind-swept hill overlooking the Jordan valley.

"May our encounter today inspire in us a renewed love for the canon of sacred scripture and a desire to overcome all obstacles to the reconciliation of Christians and Jews in mutual respect and cooperation in the service of that peace to which the word of God calls us," said the German-born Benedict. The pope sparked outrage among many Jews earlier this year when he revoked the excommunication of an ultraconservative bishop who denies the Holocaust.

Benedict's forceful condemnation of anti-Semitism and acknowledgment of Vatican mistakes have softened Jewish anger over the bishop. But another sore point has been World War II Pope Pius XII, whom Benedict has called a "great churchman." Jews and others say he failed to do all he could to stop the extermination of European Jews.

Despite the disputes, Jewish leaders say Benedict, who served in the Hitler Youth corps as a young man in Germany and then in the army before deserting near the end of the war, has an excellent record in fighting anti-Semitism.