Of mainly Muslim countries with diplomatic relations with the Vatican, only Sudan failed to attend.

BBC: NEWS | Europe | Pope stresses respect for Muslims

Relations between the Vatican and the Muslim world became strained in recent years after comments by the Pope.

BBC: Pope resigns: Sunni authority al-Azhar eyes better ties

In 1993, after 2, 000 years of often hostile Christian-Jewish relations, the Vatican and Israel approved a document in which the Holy See and the Jewish state recognized each other.

CNN: Monday,

Even countries with which the Vatican does not have diplomatic relations, such as Saudi Arabia, are informed of major events such as the installation or funeral of a pope, he said.

CNN: Zimbabwe's Mugabe arrives for pope's inaugural

But the pope promptly made him responsible for relations between Poland and the Vatican, while another liberal got his job at the Episcopacy.

ECONOMIST: Poland

Relations between Israel and the Vatican have become tense in recent months, after news leaked out that the Vatican was considering making the wartime Pope Pius XII a saint, reports the BBC's David Willey in Rome.

BBC: Pope 'to visit Holy Land in May'