Wednesday March 14, 4:55 AM  

*Church relations tested as Putin meets Benedict XVI*

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday for
the first time in the Vatican amid signs of warmer ties between the
Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.

The Vatican said in a statement after the meeting that relations between
Russia and the Vatican were "cordial" and that the talks took place in
"a very positive atmosphere."

At the meeting in the Apostolic Palace, the pope's private residence,
the two spoke in German, Benedict XVI's native tongue and the language
used by Putin during his years of service as a KGB agent in East Germany
in the 1980s.

The Orthodox and Catholic churches have been locked for years in bitter
disputes that have put off the prospect of a historic meeting between
the pope and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II.

But Vatican officials said ahead of Tuesday's meeting that Putin's visit
was "significant" and could help further boost ties between the two
Christian churches.

"There have been improvements" in relations, Antonio Mennini, the
Vatican's envoy to Moscow, said earlier in an interview with Avvenire,
the newspaper of the Italian bishops conference.

Putin, who came to the papal audience with Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov, has close ties with the Orthodox Church and has favoured
improved relations with the Vatican.

"Putin wants to go down in history as the initiator of a dialogue
between the Catholic and Orthodox churches," Russia's Nezavisimaya
Gazeta daily said Tuesday, citing observers.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta said the main aim of Putin's two-day visit to Italy,
which includes talks with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, was the
meeting with Benedict XVI and a revival of Orthodox-Catholic dialogue.

Putin, who despite his background in the Soviet secret services
regularly attends Orthodox services in Russia, met the pope's
predecessor, John Paul II, in 2000 and 2003.

But an official from the patriarchate in Moscow stressed that Tuesday's
talks would have "an inter-state character, not an inter-denominational
one" and that Putin would not play "a mediating role" with the Catholic
Church.

Russian Orthodox religious leaders have repeatedly accused Catholic
missionaries of seeking to convert Russians after the fall of the Soviet
Union, and the two sides have argued over church property in Ukraine.

There have been some recent signs of a thaw in relations, however,
particularly after the Vatican in 2004 returned to Russia an icon known
as Our Lady of Kazan that is deeply revered by Orthodox believers.

In another important symbolic move, the mayor of Bari, a southern
Italian city believed to hold the remains of Saint Nicholas, this week
offered to hand ownership of a historic Russian church over to Orthodox
authorities.

But, while the Vatican talks up the ideal of ecumenism, or unity between
Christian churches, the issue remains deeply divisive among Russian
Orthodox believers.

On Tuesday, Putin also met Prodi and Italian President Giorgio
Napolitano for talks on business deals between Rome and Moscow that are
set to continue at a summit in Bari on Wednesday.

Ministers and business leaders from the two countries are expected to
seal accords on energy, banking and industrial cooperation, signaling
Italy's growing role as a business partner for Russia in Europe.