The Vatican will not participate in US President Donald Trump's so-called "Board of Peace" initiative, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's top diplomatic official, said on Tuesday while adding that efforts to handle crisis situations should be managed by the United Nations (UN), Reuters reports.

Pope Leo, the first US pope and a critic of some of Trump's policies, was invited to join the board in January.

The Holy See "will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States," Parolin said.

"One concern," he said, "is that at the international level it should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations. This is one of the points on which we have insisted."

The creation of the Board of Peace was part of US President Donald Trump's proposed plan to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip. Its creation was announced in January.

About 60 world leaders have been invited to join the Board of Peace, some of whom—including Armenia—are founding members. Trump has become the first chairman of the Board of Peace.

The opening ceremony of the Board of Peace took place on January 22, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.