The king of Jordan's top religious adviser thanked Pope Benedict for expressing "regret" over a speech he made three years ago that many Muslims felt insulted the Prophet Muhammad, but the pontiff stopped short Saturday of formally apologizing for the remarks.
On the second day of his first trip to the Middle East, Benedict toured the newly completed King Hussein mosque in Amman with Prince Ghazni bin Mohammed.
After the tour, bin Mohammed thanked the Pope for clarifying remarks he made in 2006, in which he quoted a Medieval text that depicts Muhammad's teachings as "evil and inhuman."
Bin Mohammed commended Benedict for the statement he released after giving the speech that the quote did not reflect his own opinion but was "simply a citation in an academic lecture."
But in comments delivered to religious leaders and government officials Saturday, Benedict did not formally apologize for his comments, which Jordan's hard-line Muslim Brotherhood had demanded before the pontiff's visit.
The group said Friday it would boycott the Pope's visit because he did not apologize for the comments prior to his arrival in Jordan.
The Pope is in the Middle East hoping to improve a strained relationship with both Muslims and Jews.
Upon his arrival on Friday, Benedict expressed his "deep respect" for Islam, and on Saturday said Muslims and Christians should worship together "because of the burden of our common history."
However, many Muslims will likely feel he did not go far enough to make amends for the 2006 speech, according to ABC News correspondent Simon McGregor-Wood.
"It's something that the Pope doesn't feel that he's willing to do," McGregor-Wood told Â鶹´«Ã½net Saturday morning in a telephone interview from Amman. "So I guess there will always be a constituency of the Muslim faith in this part of the world and beyond that feels that the Pope has not come up with the goods."
Later Saturday, Benedict visited Mount Nebo, where, according to the Bible, God showed Moses the Promised Land.
While there, the Pope spoke of the "inseparable bond" between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people.
"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 co-operation in the service of that peace to which the word of God calls us," Benedict said.
The Pope enraged many Jews earlier this year when he overturned the excommunication of a conservative bishop who has denied the Holocaust.
However, he has repaired relations somewhat in recent remarks that condemned anti-Semitism and acknowledged Vatican mistakes in relations with the Jewish community.
Benedict will travel to Israel on Monday, where he is scheduled to visit the Holocaust museum and meet with Holocaust survivors.
With files from The Associated Press
