Iranian President Sheikh Hassan Rouhani will make his first visit to the Vatican and meet Pope Francis in the second half of January.

Iranian President Sheikh Hassan Rouhani will make his first visit to the Vatican and meet Pope Francis in the second half of January, a spokesman for the city state said Tuesday.

While no date has been set, the visit is likely to take place towards the end of the month, spokesman Ciro Benedettini told journalists.

President Rouhani, elected in 2013, had been scheduled to visit the Vatican in November as part of a tour which would have taken him to Italy and France. But the trip was cancelled following the Paris attacks.