WASHINGTON, July 10 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. President Barack Obama will on Friday hold his first talks with Pope Benedict XVI, a White House spokesman said.

The president and his wife, Michelle, will travel to the Vatican from the central Italian town of L'Aquila, where world leaders gathered for the recent Group of Eight summit.

The talks agenda will include such sensitive issues as abortion and embryonic stem-cell research. Obama said he favored a legal right to abortion and in March signed an order reversing Bush-era restrictions on stem-cell research.

"I think there will be a frank discussion," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

Denis McDonough, a deputy national security adviser, said: "In many ways the visit is not unlike visits with other heads of state."

"That is to say that there are issues on which they'll agree, issues on which they'll disagree, and issues on which they'll agree to continue to work on going forward," he said.

The president addressed the debate over abortion in the United States during his commencement speech at the Catholic University of Notre Dame in May.

"At some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable," he said, adding that he sought "common ground."