Pope jokes that Melania Trump feeds her husband Slovenian cake during Vatican meeting

Small talk in a foreign language; one of the many potential stumbling blocks a fledgling world leader would be well-advised to side-step on their first trip abroad.

And so it fell to Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, and her pontiff host, Pope Francis, to engage in what initially appeared to be a linguistic muddle during the US President’s Vatican visit.

Greeting the First Couple, the Pope asked Ms Trump if she fed her husband a nut-filled Slovenian cake. “What are you feeding him, potica?” he asked.

The pontiff was referring to a traditional sweet bread, which can also be filled with chocolate or honey, and is baked in the form of a Swiss roll.

A translator repeated the question in English and Ms Trump, who grew up in the Slovenian town of Sevnica, replied, “potica, yes”, before both parties laughed.

However, the Vatican initially suggested Pope Francis was not enquiring about potica, pronounced po-teet-sah, but about another bread-based food, pizza - a mistake repeated by some who watched the video.

The Vatican later clarified that he had in fact been asking about the cake, and there was no mention of whether the pontiff had been referring to the stature of Mr Trump, who at a reported 16-and-a-half-stone has previously acknowledged he "could lose a little weight".

Mr Trump met the Pope for 30 minutes on Wednesday morning, during his first overseas trip since entering the White House.

He was given a small sculptured olive tree and told through the interpreter that it symbolised peace.

"It is my desire that you become an olive tree to construct peace," the Pope said, speaking in Spanish.

Mr Trump responded: "We can use peace."

Pope Francis also gave Mr Trump a signed copy of his 2017 peace message whose title is "Nonviolence - A Style of Politics for Peace", and a copy of his 2015 letter on the need to protect the environment from the effects of climate change.

"Well, I'll be reading them," Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump gave the Pope a boxed set of five first-edition books by US civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

As Mr Trump and the Pope said goodbye at the door of the study, the President said: "Thank you, thank you. I won't forget what you said."

In a statement, the Vatican said the two sides agreed on their "joint commitment in favour of life and freedom of worship and conscience”.

The statement continued: "It is hoped that there may be serene collaboration between the state and the Catholic Church in the United States, engaged in service to the people in the fields of healthcare, education and assistance to immigrants."

It said talks also covered promoting peace through dialogue with people of other faiths.