JERUSALEM (CNS) — Israeli and Vatican officials denied reports that Israeli President Shimon Peres had asked the government to relinquish sovereignty over several holy places as a gesture of good will for Pope Benedict XVI.

Reports abounded in the Israeli press in early May claiming internal discord between Peres and officials from the Tourism and Interior ministries after the president allegedly had urged them to yield key Christian holy sites to the Vatican. “What was published was taken out of context,” a spokeswoman for the president’s office said May 6. “The Israeli media published it as if the president was asking to give up sovereignty over holy sites, and there is a great distance between that and the reality.”

The spokeswoman said Israel already has pledged to the Vatican that it will not confiscate land around six Christian sites for any sort of national development purpose such as the widening of roads. She said Peres had asked the ministries, as a gesture of good will before the pope’s May 8-15 trip to the Holy Land, to confirm the pledge and to speed up the negotiations.

The holy sites mentioned include the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth and Gethsemane in Jerusalem.