Christians enrich culture and civilisation in the Middle East, according to a spokesman for one of the world's top centres of Sunni and Islamic scholarship, the Al-Azhar Islamic University in Cairo.

"Christians are a source of enrichment for culture and civil society in the Middle East," the cleric Mohammed Rifai al-Tahtawi.

He was commenting on the results of a recent Vatican synod of Catholic bishops.

In remarks at the end of the two-week synod, Pope Benedict XVI urged Israelis and Palestinians to push for peace in the Middle East and not to give up hope of a settlement.

Peace would be the best way to stem the emigration of Christians from the Middle East, the pope said.

"We are careful to preserve the role of the Christian community in Muslim countries, because Islam urges us to respect each other and to favour exchanges between different cultures and civilisations," said al-Tahtawi.

The Egyptian cleric welcomed comments made in a declaration by the Vatican conference which said the international community should take "the necessary legal steps to put an end to the occupation of the different Arab territories".

"This causes so much suffering, also to Christians in the region," he said.

Responding to calls for greater religious freedom in the Middle East, al-Tahtawi said: "Islam sanctions freedom of worship because it forbids any constraint on religion."

Al-Tahtawi rejected claims that Islam had been spread with the sword.

"This is a lie, because in countries like Indonesia or African states, the Muslim faith spread peacefully.

"Otherwise why would the sister-in-law of Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair have become a Muslim?" he asked.

Lauren Booth, a journalist, told Britain's Mail on Sunday newspaper she converted to Islam six weeks ago after a visit to the holy Iranian city of Qom.

AKI