VATICAN CITY, Feb 12 Pope Benedict, trying to defuse a controversy over a bishop who denies the Holocaust, said on Thursday “any denial or minimisation of this terrible crime is intolerable”, especially if it comes from a clergyman.

The pope also confirmed for the first time that he was planning to visit Israel. Vatican sources say the trip is expected for May. It would be the first by a pope since John Paul visited in 2000.

Benedict made the comments in his first meeting with Jews since the controversy over traditionalist Bishop Richard Williamson began in late January. Williamson denies the full extent of the Holocaust and says there were no gas chambers.

The pope told Jewish leaders “The hatred and contempt for men, women and children that was manifested in the Holocaust was a crime against humanity. This should be clear to everyone, especially to those standing in the tradition of the Holy Scriptures ...”

The German pope recalled his own visit to the death camp at Auschwitz in 2006 and, in some of the strongest words he has ever spoken about the Holocaust and relations with Jews, said “It is my fervent prayer that the memory of this appalling crime will strengthen our determination to heal the wounds that for too long have sullied relations between Christians and Jews.”

PRAYER He repeated the prayer that the late Pope John Paul used when he visited Jerusalem's Western Wall in 2000 and asked forgiveness from Jews for Christians who had persecuted them in past centuries.

Benedict then added in his own words “I now make his prayer my own.”

Catholic-Jewish relations have been extremely tense since Jan 24, when Benedict lifted excommunications of four renegade traditionalist bishops in an attempt to heal a schism that began in 1988 when they were ordained without Vatican permission.

Williamson, a member of the ultra-traditionalist Society of St Pius X (SSPX), told Swedish television in an interview broadcast on Jan.21 “I believe there were no gas chambers.”

He said no more than 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps, rather than the 6 million accepted by most historians.

The Vatican has ordered him to recant but he so far has not done so, saying he needs more time to review the evidence.

“This terrible chapter in our history (the Holocaust) must never be forgotten,” the Pope told the Jewish delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations.—Reuters