Pope Benedict stressed the importance of including Islamic subjects in German school curricula. (Reuters)

COLOGNE, Germany, August 20, August 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Pope Benedict XVI prepared to address Muslim leaders Saturday, August 20, in his latest bid to reach out to other religions during the first foreign visit of his pontificate.

The 78-year-old pope was scheduled to meet a delegation of Islamic leaders in Cologne, the fourth largest city in Germany, in the early evening for what was to be his seventh major address in three days, following one in a synagogue to leaders of Germany's Jewish community the day before, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The meeting is a key part of his pledge to use his four-month-old pontificate to build "bridges of friendship" with the world's other monotheistic religions.

The Muslim delegation is being led by Ridvan Cakir, leader of Germany 's biggest Islamic group, the Turkish-Islamic Union (DITIB).

Islamic Curricula

The pope during a meeting with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Earlier Saturday, the pope took time out of his schedule to hold talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his challenger in the Sept. 18 elections, Angela Merkel.

The meeting brought together top candidates for the Social Democrats (SPD), Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Parliamentary President Wolfgang Thierse and State Premier for North Rhine-Westphalia Jürgen Rüttgers Jürgen Rüttgers, reported Deutsche Welle.

Rüttgers said the pope stressed in his meeting the need for Islamic religious studies in German schools along the lines of the curriculum currently offered for Catholic and Protestant pupils.

Muslims growing up in Germany run the risk of becoming "homeless" in the sense that they no longer have ties to their homeland with its culture and religion, the pope reportedly told Rüttgers.

These children must be allowed to enjoy the same access to their religious heritage as those of Catholics and Protestants, who make up the majority of Germans, he added.

For more than 20 years, Muslims in Germany have been pressing education leaders to introduce regular religion courses in German for their school-aged children.

So far only a few model projects exist in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Bavaria.

The pope has been reaching out to Muslims following accusations of ignoring Islam and his past opposition to Turkey’s candidacy to join the European Union.

He ignored Islam in his inaugural mass and hailed the “great spiritual heritage” shared by Jews and Christians.

Benedict recently backpedaled on calling the July 7 London transport bombings "anti-Christian" -- which would likely have provoked a backlash from the Muslim world -- after an early draft of a Vatican statement condemning the bombings included the inflammatory phrase, according to AFP.

Instead, a final version approved by the pope stopped at referring to the blasts as "barbaric acts against humanity."

Germany is home to around three million Muslims, most of them of Turkish descent.

Synagogue Visit

Pope Benedict is welcomed on the steps of the Cologne synagogue by a rabbi. (Reuters)

Benedict paid a historic visit to  Cologne synagogue Friday, becoming only the second pope known to have visited a synagogue. Late Pope John Paul II made the first visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome in April 1986.

The leader of Germany's Jewish community, Paul Spiegel, said he was "extremely impressed" by the pope’s speech, Deutsche Welle reported.

"I was extremely impressed by what he said and how he said it. He condemned the crimes of the Nazis without any ifs and buts," Spiegel said.

Benedict XVI, who served briefly in the Hitler Youth during the war when membership of the Nazi organization was compulsory, paused to pray at a memorial to the Jews killed in the Holocaust as he began the landmark visit.

The pope described the extermination of Jews by the Nazis as an "unimaginable crime."

"In the 20th century, in the darkest period of German and European history, an insane racist ideology, born of neo-paganism, gave rise to the attempt, planned and systematically carried out by the regime, to exterminate European Jewry," he said.

The pope warned that new threats of racism and anti-Semitism were always lurking.

"It is a particularly important task, since today, sadly, we are witnessing the rise of new signs of anti-Semitism and various forms of a general hostility towards foreigners," he said.

"The Catholic Church is committed -- I reaffirm this again today -- to tolerance, respect, friendship and peace between all peoples, cultures and religions."