President joins Pope Francis in call for 'outcomes and action'

The two heads of state met in the Vatican where they discussed migration, climate change, sustainable development, the failure to prevent ever increasing threats of conflict and poverty.

They also talked about the need to achieve social cohesion, values of solidarity and global responsibility in Brexit negotiations, the President's office said.

A spokesman said the issues were of mutual concern to both Mr Higgins and the pontiff.

Prime Minister Theresa May is to join President Donald Trump and newly-elected French president Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of Canada, Germany, Italy and Japan at the G7 summit in Taormina, Sicily this week.

The pope and Mr Higgins urged them to recognise the sense of urgency on global issues.

They called on them to see the need "to craft new and effective responses to global challenges".

"In particular, they agreed on the need to turn commitments on which the public had placed their trust into outcomes and action," a statement from the President's office said.

Since being elected in 2011 Mr Higgins has quoted the pope on a number of occasions and also referred to the "the globalisation of indifference", a phrase used by the pontiff about the handling of the migrant and refugee crisis in the Mediterranean.

Mr Higgins' spokesman said the two men also discussed their shared conviction that new connections between ethics, economy and ecology must be at the core of all work of social and intellectual reconstruction in this new century.

He said they also agreed there can be no resolution to global issues world without an engaged alternative to "the globalisation of indifference".