Pope John Paul II has issued an appeal for dialogue among Christians, Jews and Muslims at the climax of his first pilgrimage to Egypt.

He made the appeal at Mount Sinai, a site holy to all three religions and where God is said to have spoken to Moses from a burning bush to give him the Ten Commandments.

The Pope told hundreds of followers outside the Monastery of St Catherine: "The wind which still today blows from Sinai reminds us that God wants to be honoured in and through the growth of his creatures.

"In this sense, that wind carries an insistent invitation to dialogue between the followers of the great monotheistic religions in their service of the human family."  The Pope also achieved a lifelong ambition by praying at Mount Sinai. He knelt down at a church altar inside St Catherine's monastery and prayed, surrounded by Greek Orthodox monks and Roman Catholic clerics.

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