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US President Barack Obama has promised Pope Benedict XVI he will try to reduce the number of abortions in the United States.
The US President and the Pontiff, who met for the first time on Friday, also discussed Middle East peace, Obama's efforts to reach out to the Muslim world, immigration reforms and sensitive bioethics matters, in talks that lasted about 40 minutes, both sides said.
'The Pontiff told me that President Obama affirmed his personal commitment to try to reduce the number of abortions in the United States,' Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told reporters.
Lombardi said the promise touched on an issue that deeply divides the US public and has set pro-abortion rights Democrats like Obama at odds with official Vatican policy.
After the audience, the Pope gave Obama a Vatican paper entitled 'An Instruction On Certain Bioethical Issues', Deputy US National Security Adviser Denis McDonough told reporters.
'He (Obama) looks forward to reading it. My sense is that they discussed abortion and stem cells,' McDonough said aboard Obama's Air Force One plane. 'The president was eager to listen to the Holy Father.'
Obama 'is eager to find common ground on these issues and to work aggressively to do that,' McDonough said, adding that there may be some issues where the two leaders will not reach an agreement.
Obama and the Pope concluded their meeting with a discussion of Democratic US Senator Ted Kennedy, and the President gave the Pontiff a letter from the ailing Catholic lawmaker, who has been battling brain cancer, said McDonough.
Obama telephoned Kennedy, the patriarch of one of the best-known Roman Catholic families in the United States, just before leaving Rome for Ghana, said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, who underlined that no one but Kennedy knew the contents of the letter.
Gibbs said he did not believe that Obama and the Pope had prayed together and was unsure whether the Pontiff had blessed the president, but said the US leader had 'asked the Pope to pray for his family'.
First Lady Michelle Obama, daughters Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, as well as Obama's mother-in-law and the girls' godmother also spent time with the Pope, said Gibbs.
Obama told aides 'how beautiful he found the Vatican itself' and called it 'quite moving', adding he was moved by the chance to see it and wished his stay could have been longer, said McDonough.
'The president was very touched by the visit, very moved by both the office and by the Pope himself, and very hopeful that they continue to work together,' said McDonough.
