Vatican City, 13 October (AKI) - Pope Benedict XVI will visit Rome's synagogue for the first time on 17 January 2010, said the Vatican's media office on Tuesday. The pontiff will on 16 November visit to the headquarters of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation or FAO, located in Rome, at the start of the three-day World Summit on Food Security.

Benedict will "meet the local Jewish community for the occasion of the twenty-first Day for the study and development of dialogue between Catholics and Jews, and of the Feast of the 'Mo'ed di Piombo' which falls on the same day".

The feast commemorates a miraculous event of 1793 when the Jews of Rome escaped an attack by the populace of the city thanks to a sudden storm which doused the fires that had been ignited against the gates of the ghetto, said a media release by the Vatican.

Benedict's predecessor John Paul II, made the first historic papal visit to the Rome synagogue in 1986.

In May, Benedict made an historic visit to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, a trip he described as a "pilgrimage of peace".

During his visit to Israel, the pontiff was widely criticised by commentators and politicians for failing to express sufficient remorse for the Holocaust and over his membership of the Hitler Youth as a teenager.

Rome's Jewish community is Europe's oldest, dating back to the 2nd century BC.