Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday invited Pope Francis to visit the Holy Land, matching a standing invitation from Israel.
The pontiff, who has made many appeals for peace in the Middle East since his election in March, has already accepted an invitation from Israeli president Shimon Peres, and is widely expected to make the trip next year.
Abbas extended the invitation during a meeting in the Vatican with the pope.
"I invited him to the Holy Land," Abbas said, after a 30-minute private meeting with the pope in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.
After the private part of their meeting, the pope gave Abbas a pen, telling him "surely, you have a lot of things you have to sign".
Abbas responded: "I hope to sign a peace treaty with Israel with this pen."
It did not say whether Pope Francis had accepted the invitation to visit the Holy Land.
The meeting was attended by Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, the PA advisor on Christian affairs, Ziad al Bandak and Bethlehem Mayor Vera Baboun.
Both of Francis's two immediate predecessors, Benedict and John Paul, visited Holy Land sites in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is set to travel to Rome next week and meet with both Pope Francis and US Secretary of State John Kerry, his office announced on Wednesday.
Abbas also met separately with the speaker of the Italian parliament, Laura Boldrini, and briefed her on Israeli “transgressions against Islamic and Christian sites,” the news agency said. He also briefed her on the economic hardships facing Palestinians and the latest developments surrounding the peace process, it added.
Abbas is also expected to visit Britain and Germany for talks on the situation in the Palestinian territories and the secret peace talks with Israel.
Abbas will use the talks to urge EU countries to impose sanctions against Israel over its policy of settlement construction.