VATICAN CITY/ANKARA - Pope Benedict tried on Sunday to calm Muslim anger at his remarks on Islam, saying he was "deeply sorry" about the reaction and that medieval quotes he used on holy war did not reflect his personal views.

The head of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics stopped short of the full apology or retraction demanded by some Muslims for a speech they say portrayed Islam as tainted by violence.

It was unclear whether his words would end the backlash.

Ankara, Vatican intend to go ahead with pope's visit:

In Ankara, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül said on Sunday that Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit to Turkey in November would go ahead, ruling out any cancellation over the pontiff's latest remarks on Islam, while Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said on the same day that there was currently no reason to cancel the planned trip.

?A change [in the pope's visit] is out of the question for us right now,? Gül told reporters ahead of his departure from Ankara for New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly.

The deputy leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Habib, initially said it was "a sufficient apology," but later said: "It does not rise to the level of a clear apology and, based on this, we're calling on the pope of the Vatican to issue a clear apology that will decisively end any confusion."

Before the pope spoke, there had already been a protest on Sunday in Iran and attacks on churches in the West Bank. In Somalia an Italian nun was killed in an attack one Islamist source said may be linked to the crisis.

"... I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims," he told pilgrims at his Castelgandolfo summer residence.

"These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought," the pope said at his weekly Angelus prayer.


NUN KILLED:

Gunmen killed an Italian nun at a children's hospital in Mogadishu on Sunday in an attack that drew immediate speculation of links to Muslim anger over the ope's recent remarks on Islam.

The Catholic nun's guard also died from pistol shots in the latest attack on foreign personnel in volatile Somalia.

The assassinations were a blow to Mogadishu's new Islamist rulers' attempt to prove they have pacified one of the world's most lawless cities since chasing out warlords in June.

The bodyguard died instantly, but the nun, from the Missionaries of the Consolation order based in Nepi near Rome, was rushed into an operating theatre after being hit by three or four bullets in the chest, stomach and back.

"She died in the hospital treatment room," doctor Ali Mohamed Hassan told Reuters. "She was shot outside the hospital, going to her house just across the gate."

A nun from the Missionaries order identified her as sister Leonella Sgorbati, born in 1940, in Piacenza in northern Italy. In Somalia since 2002, she trained nurses at the SOS Kindergarten hospital.

The Italian government said the nun and two other Italian nuns working with her had been repeatedly advised to leave Somalia, which was formerly ruled by Italy.

Sunday's death provoked scenes of mourning at the hospital.