Al-Qaeda in Iraq denounced Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey and referred to it as part of a "crusader campaign" against Islam.
The Vatican said Wednesday's comments showed the need to fight "violence in the name of God."
The trip is Benedict's first visit to an Islamic country as pontiff.
He is seeking dialogue with Muslims who were angered over a speech he made in September in which he cited a medieval text that made a link between Islam and violence.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the most feared Islamic militant group in Iraq, issued its statement on an Islamic militant Web site it often uses to post messages.
The authenticity of the al-Qaeda statement could not be confirmed.
It was signed by the "Islamic state in Iraq," the so-called Islamic government that the group declared earlier this year and that now issues all the group's messages.
"The pope's visit, in fact, is to consolidate the crusader campaign against the lands of Islam after the failure of the crusader leaders [in Iraq and Afghanistan] ... and an attempt to extinguish the burning ember of Islam inside our Turkish brothers," the statement said.
The statement did not include any direct threat to the pope, saying only that the group is "confident in the defeat of Rome in all parts of the Islamic world."
The Vatican said on Wednesday that the al-Qaeda in Iraq denunciation shows the need for faiths to fight "violence in the name of God."
"This type of message shows once again the urgency and importance of a common commitment of all forces against violence," Vatican spokesman Reverend Federico Lombardi told reporters.
"It also shows the need of various faiths to say `no' to violence in the name of God," he said.
Turkey holds a significant place in the mind-set of al-Qaeda and militant Islamic groups that sympathize with it.
Under the Ottomans, Turkey was the seat of the Islamic caliphate, the religious rule that extended over much of the Islamic world until its collapse in the early 20th century.
Al-Qaeda has said its goal is to restore the caliphate, to unify Muslims in the fight against the West.
The group said the pope was visiting in order to ensure that Turkey -- which was "once a stronghold of Islam" -- remains secular and "is driven into the arms of the European Union to stop the spread of Islam."
It specifically pointed to the pope's "bald-faced attack on Islam in September."
The pope's speech at the time prompted outrage across much of the Islamic world, after he quoted a medieval document that called the Prophet Mohammed violent.
The al-Qaeda statement came only hours before US President George W. Bush arrived in Amman, Jordan for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The two state leaders will meet in order to attempt to find a solution to the cycle of bloodshed in Iraq that many believe has already spiraled out of control.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq said "the crusader campaigns have broken against the rocks of the holy warriors ... in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American administration and its dogs in al-Maliki's government are living the worst days of their lives."
Chaos and violence have increased in Iraq since Sunni insurgents set off a string of car bombs last week, killing more than 200 people in a Shiite neighborhood of the nation's capital.
Bush accused al-Qaeda this week of working to ensure the continuation of the violence in Iraq.
"All these changes, along with the rise of Islamic jihadis [supporters of holy war], are what pushed the worshipper of the cross, the pope, to visit Turkey to revive his so-called dialogue of religions," al-Qaeda in Iraq said.
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