Georgian President meets with Pope

Pope Benedict XVI has met with Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili in the Vatican. The meeting took place in the library of the Apostolic Palace and lasted 35 minutes. The theme of the talks was not reported.

Saakashvili gifted two orthodox icons to the Pope. Benedict XVI presented a pencil in the shape of one of the columns of the architect Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini. The majority of Georgians are orthodox christians and it became the first post-Soviet country to be visited by the head of Catholic Church in 1999.