Donald Trump vows to use presidency for peace after fantastic talks with Pope Francis

Donald Trump vowed today to use his US presidency to promote global peace after meeting Pope Francis, before heading into a high-stakes summit of the world's biggest military alliance.

Meeting for the first time, the president and the pontiff sidestepped deep differences over issues ranging from the environment to the plight of migrants and the poor."Honor of a lifetime to meet His Holiness Pope Francis," a star-struck Trump wrote on Twitter before leaving Rome for Brussels and the next leg of his first overseas trip as US president.

Trump said that the most important issue during his time in Belgium was terrorism after the "horrible situation" in Manchester, England, where a suicide bomber killed 22 people in an attack claimed by the Islamic State.

Accompanied by his wife Melania and daughter Ivanka, Trump met Francis in the private library of the Apostolic Palace,



the lavish papal residence that the current pope eschews in favour of more modest lodgings.

The Vatican described the discussions as "cordial" and emphasised the two men's joint opposition to abortion and shared concern for persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

The pope presented Trump with a medallion engraved with an olive tree, the international symbol of peace.

Francis also gave Trump copies of the three major text she has published as pope, including one on the environment which urges the industrialised world to curb carbon emissions or risk catastrophic consequences for the planet.

Trump, who has threatened to ignore the Paris accords on emissions and described global warming as a hoax, vowed to read them.Trump's gifts included a collection of first editions by Martin Luther King and a bronze sculpture.