Recep Tayyip Erdogan was due to become the first Turkish Prime Minister to receive Pope Benedict XVI during a bridge-building visit this month.

But the Turkish Embassy to the Holy See announced yesterday that Mr Erdogan, who is struggling to secure his country’s entry into the European Union, would instead attend a Nato summit in Estonia.

Turkish analysts suggested that with elections next year, Mr Erdogan could ill afford a photo opportunity alongside the Pope, who provoked outrage across the Muslim world by citing an Islamophobic 14th-century Byzantine emperor.

The official programme of the visit, released yesterday by the Prime Minister’s office, made no mention of a meeting on the day of the Pope’s arrival. Vatican officials played down the apparent diary change.

A tentative itinerary drawn up by the Turkish side had included a meeting with Mr Erdogan on November 28, the first day of the trip, after a visit by the Pope to the mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

The Turkish Embassy to the Holy See said that Mr Erdogan would attend a Nato summit in Estonia, “a very important appointment for us”. Vatican watchers said that the Turkish Government had known for some time that the summit clashed with the Pope’s visit, but a “brief” meeting had nonetheless been envisaged. The Pope is a head of state.

Father Federico Lombardi, the papal spokesman, said: “No one said the Pope had to meet all the officials in Turkey, though he will certainly meet representative authorities.”

Turkish officials confirmed that the Pope would meet President Sezer and Ali Bardakoglu, head of the Religious Affairs Directorate and the leading cleric in the predominantly Muslim country. The Pope has expressed regret repeatedly for any offence caused for quoting, in September, criticism by the emperor of the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings as “evil and inhuman” and of Islam as being spread “by the sword”.

Although the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has its roots in political Islam, rebuffed calls to postpone or cancel the papal visit, it appears that with elections due next year, a meeting between Mr Erdogan and the Pope would have been a step too far for the party conservatives.

“AK Party made a big stand by wanting the visit to go ahead,” Cengiz Candar, a Middle East expert, said. “This put the party’s standing at risk before its own grass roots, and I believe Erdogan decided not to meet him so as not to worsen the situation.”

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