Bethlehem, West Bank - Scores of people lined up outside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity late Wednesday evening in cold and windy weather to attend the Midnight Mass in the birthplace of Jesus.

The mass will be lead by the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, and attended also by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who arrived in Bethlehem earlier in the day from the central West Bank city of Ramallah.

While the queue leading up to the Church of the Nativity, built on the site where according to Christian tradition Jesus was born, was limited to people with tickets only, hundreds more Christian tourists and pilgrims from all over the world filled Bethlehem's central Manger Square.

Amid tight security by Palestinian security forces, they watched performances on a large podium erected on the square in the Biblical city's historic centre, lavishly decorated with Christmas lights and trees.

Residents said that due to the bad weather, Manger Square was less crowded than Christmas Eve last year. Nevertheless, throughout the day thousands of tourists visited the city and attended also brief, basic one-hour services at the nearby Shepherds Fields in the adjacent town of Beit Sahour, believed to be the site where angels delivered the message that Jesus was born. (dpa)