VATICAN CITY, Sept 20: Pope Benedict XVI told thousands of pilgrims at the Vatican on Wednesday that worldwide Muslim anger over his recent speech in Germany was the result of an ‘unfortunate misunderstanding’.

The pope also expressed respect for followers of all religions, ‘particularly Muslims’, during his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square.

He reiterated that parts of the speech which offended Muslims did not reflect his personal opinion, and hoped it could yet lead to dialogue between religions.

The leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Roman Catholics had come under increasing pressure to make an unequivocal apology over his comments linking Islam with violence.

A personal expression of regret on Sunday in which he said he was ‘deeply sorry’ for causing offence failed to fully appease Muslim leaders.

Before a packed and expectant St Peter’s Square, the 79-year-old pope gave a day-by-day account of his six-day visit to his native Bavaria last week, including the controversial address at Regensburg University.

The speech, in which he quoted a medieval emperor criticising the concept of jihad as ‘evil and inhuman’, sparked several days of protests in Muslim countries.

“I included a quotation on the relationship between religion and violence. This quotation, unfortunately, was misunderstood,” he said.

“In no way did I wish to make my own the words of the medieval emperor. I wished to explain that not religion and violence, but religion and reason, go together,” the pope explained to pilgrims.

“I hope that my profound respect for world religions and for Muslims, who ‘worship the one God’ and with whom we ‘promote peace, liberty, social justice and moral values for the benefit of all humanity’ is clear,” he said, citing the 1965 Nostra Aetate document under which the Vatican formally recognises the major non-Christian faiths.

“Let us continue the dialogue both between religions and between modern reason and the Christian faith,” he concluded, to warm applause from flag-waving pilgrims.—AFP