RABAT, Morocco — Morocco's King Mohammed VI is calling for more religious dialogue between Muslims and Christians and says education is the answer to religious extremism.

Greeting Pope Francis on the pontiff's first visit to Morocco on Saturday, the king said challenging times are facing the world's religious community and require dialogue "for the sake of the future and that of the coming generations."

Reading segments of his speech in Arabic, French, Spanish and English, the king said: "We need to tackle these new ills, which feed on treachery as much as on the instrumentalization of the divine message. What all terrorists have in common is not religion but rather ignorance of religion."

Morocco has sought to become a voice of moderate Islam in the Muslim world.

AP