Vatican City - Pope Benedict said on Sunday he hoped Iraq's Christian minority could continue to live in peace with the Muslim majority in a country where people of both religions faced tragedy on a daily basis.
The Pontiff, who has been trying to patch up relations with Muslims after a controversial speech last month, said Iraq had traditionally been a place of harmony between Muslims and Christians.
Benedict said the leader of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church visited him on Friday and told him of the "tragic reality faced every day by the dear population of Iraq where Christians and Muslims have lived together for 14 centuries as children of the same land.
"I hope there is no loosening of the bonds of their fraternity," he told pilgrims after delivering his weekly blessing at his summer palace outside Rome.
The patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Emmanuel Delly, has been seeking the release of a priest abducted in Iraq on August 15.
"I invite everyone to join me in asking Almighty God for the gift of peace and harmony for that tormented country."
In a video posted on the Internet on Friday, Ayman al-Zawahri, al Qaeda's second-in-command called the Pope a "charlatan" and compared him to the 11th century Pope Urban II who backed the first crusade.
"This charlatan accused Islam of being incompatible with rationality while forgetting that his own Christianity is unacceptable to a sensible mind," Zawahri said.
The Pope caused outrage in many Muslim countries when he made a speech quoting criticism of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad by 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus, who wrote that Mohammad commanded that Islam be spread by the sword.
To ease tensions, Benedict invited diplomats from Muslim countries to a meeting last week where he assured them of his respect and commitment to dialogue.