Jerusalem - The Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, will hold talks at the Vatican today on a dispute between Christians and Muslims that threatens millennium celebrations in Nazareth, the boyhood home of Jesus and Israel's largest Arab city.
Mr Sharon - whose visit will include an audience with Pope John Paul - is expected to tell senior Vatican diplomats that Israel is eager to achieve a compromise in the dispute.
Muslims want to build a large mosque in Nazareth on contested land below the Basilica of the Annunciation, where the Angel Gabriel is said to have appeared to the Virgin Mary to tell her she would give birth to Jesus.
Muslims want to build the mosque on a site the city authorities have cleared below the basilica for a public plaza to accommodate Christian pilgrims expected to flock to Nazareth in 2000.