Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Amman, Jordan's capital, where he begins a week-long, heavily politicised "pilgrimage" of the Holy Land, touring sites across Jordan, Israel and the West Bank town of Bethlehem.

Jordan, a Muslim kingdom with a Christian minority that has made interfaith cooperation a priority, is a symbolic first stop for the pontiff, who rankled much of the Muslim world with his 2006 speech in Regensburg during which he indirectly implied that Islam was a violent religion.

On the plane that brought him to Jordan, the pope stressed the importance of dialogue between Christianity, Judaism and Islam. "Three-way dialogue is very important for peace and so that everyone can follow the tenets of their faith," the pontiff told reporters.

He also added that the Church could help the Middle East peace process. "We are not a political power but a spiritual force and this spiritual force is a reality that can contribute to progress in the peace process," he said.

Yet, while authorities said they were preparing a warm welcome for him, some Islamic groups are already protesting against his arrival.

First stop in Amman

The pope was greeted by Jordan's King Abdullah II and Queen Rania. He will visit the ancient basilica on Mount Nebo and Amman's Regina Pacis centre for the handicapped.

He is also expected to raise the issue of Iraqi Christians in the country. He will celebrate a large open-air mass at the Amman International Stadium. The government has issued a decree allowing Christians to take leave on Sunday, a working day in Muslim countries, in order to attend.

In Israel, Benedict XVI will be the first pope to visit the Dome of the Rock, the golden-domed shrine on Temple Mount in Jerusalem, revered by Muslims as their third most holy site. He will visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and meet with Palestinians in Bethlehem, believed to be Jesus's birthplace.

The 82-year-old head of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics made it clear that his visit is mainly a spiritual pilgrimage.

“My primary intention is to visit the places made holy by the life of Jesus and to pray at them for the gift of peace and unity for your families and all those for whom the Holy Land and the Middle East is home,” he said on Wednesday.

Challenges

But the journey is riddled with challenges. “Each day, each gesture, each encounter and each visit will have a political connotation”, Fuad Twal, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, told Catholic news service CTS news.

The pope appears to be sidestepping any controversial visits during his trip. His scheduled stop at the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel, for example, carefully avoids passing near a plaque that criticises his predecessor Pius XII for not doing enough to save Jews during the Holocaust.

In Bethlehem, Palestinians had initially erected a stage for the pope to speak from next to a portion of the highly disputed wall erected by Israel to separate it from Palestinian territories. Instead, the Vatican decided the pontiff would speak from a nearby United Nations school after complaints from Israel.

The pope’s recent blunders have stirred up tensions between the Vatican, Muslims and Jews and upped the ante of his visit to the Middle East.

Local Catholic officials are more than a little worried about the outcome of his visit, as Twal told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

“The thing that worries me most is the speech he will deliver here,” said Twal. “One word for the Muslims and I’m in trouble; one word for the Jews and I’m in trouble. At the end of the visit, the pope goes back to Rome and I stay here with the consequences.”