Jerusalem - Israeli President Shimon Peres presented Pope Benedict XVI with a microscopic Bible, as he welcomed him at his residence in Jerusalem Monday.

The Bible, about the size of a grain of sand, requires an electron microscope to read and was made with the help of nanotechnology, he explained to his guest.

Pope Benedict signed the guest book and as he sat down with Peres to start the meeting, said that "in our faith we are connected with Israel. Your prophets are our prophets."

Peres said he was "grateful" for the Pope's earlier, clear condemnation of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust on his arrival at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion International Airport. (dpa)