VATICAN CITY, June 13 — Pope Francis will meet with the leaders of the United States, Ukraine, France and India on the sidelines of the Group of 7 (G7) summit in Italy’s Borgo Egnazia, the Vatican said today.

Francis, who in January warned against the "perverse” dangers of artificial intelligence, is due to take part in leaders’ talks on the new technology on Friday.

He is the first pope to take part in G7 discussions.

Issuing a programme for his one-day appearance, the Vatican said Francis would have a bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden, a fellow Catholic.

The Vatican said he would also have one-on-one meetings with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy, France’s Emmanuel Macron, India’s Narendra Modi, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Kenya’s William Ruto, Algeria’s Abdelmadjid Tebboune, and the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva. — Reuters