Abbas slams Israeli occupation

Palestin: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas slammed the Israeli occupation on Wednesday as he received Pope Benedict XVI in the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

"In this holy land there are those who continue to build separation walls instead of bridges and seek by the forces of the occupation to compel Muslims and Christians to leave the country," Abbas said as he greeted the pontiff.

The pope was to spend the day in the occupied West Bank, holding mass at the site where Christians believe Jesus born in a manger and visiting a nearby Palestinian refugee camp as part of a week-long visit to the Holy Land.

Abbas, like other Palestinian officials, appealed to the pope to work towards a resolution to the conflicts and sharply criticised Israel's West Bank separation wall, which nearly encircles Bethlehem.

"Your holiness is fully aware of the situation in Jerusalem which is surrounded by an apartheid wall which forbids our people in the West Bank from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Al-Aqsa mosque," Abbas said. BETHLEHEM, Wednesday, AFP