ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)

STORY: Israeli and Palestinian presidents exchange warm greetings ahead of an unprecedented prayer meeting with Pope Francis on Sunday (June 8), a gesture he hopes will "re-create a desire, a possibility" of relaunching the Middle East's stalled peace process.

The Vatican has played down any expectations that the Sunday evening meeting between Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas - billed as a "pause from politics" - will lead to any immediate breakthroughs in the region's tortuous problems and says it is not meddling in regional issues.