Vietnam confirms prime minister will meet the Pope

HANOI, Jan 18 (Reuters) today Vietnam confirmed that its prime minister would meet Pope Benedict at the Vatican next week, in what experts said could lead to the communist-run country establishing full diplomatic ties with the Holy See.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung would become the Southeast Asian country's highest-ranking official to visit the Vatican, two years after the Pope created a new diocese in Vietnam.

On January 11, the Vatican said Dung would visit the Pope, but the meeting was not confirmed by Hanoi until today.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that Dung would visit Italy on January 25 to promote economic, trade and investment ties.

''On this occasion, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will visit the Vatican and hold a meeting with the Pope Benedict XVI,'' the statement said.

Buddhism, with 10 million believers, is the main religion among Vietnam's 84 million people and one of six state recognised religions. Catholics, many of whom live in the south, number about 8 million and form the second-largest Catholic community in Asia after the Philippines.

After Pope John Paul's death in 2005, Vietnam's ruling Communist Party went out of its way with unprecedented words and actions to praise the late Pope and gave blanket approval for Vietnamese Catholic leaders to travel to Rome for his funeral.

The last leading Vietnamese official to visit the Vatican was deputy prime minister Vu Khoan in 2002. He held talks with Vatican diplomats but did not meet Pope John Paul.

The US State Department has criticised Vietnam for restricting freedom of religion. All faiths are under state supervision, although Hanoi says it protects the rights of citizens ''to belief or non-belief''.

Last November, Vietnam was removed from a US State Department blacklist of countries that it says severely violate religious freedom. But critics of Hanoi say harassment of believers remains a problem in the provinces.

Dung's visit could be the last stage in a prelude to full diplomatic links between the Holy See and Vietnam after decades of tense relations, experts said.

''This is a very interesting development and puts Vietnam ahead of China on this,'' one Western diplomat in Hanoi said.

''Roman Catholics still have some constraints here but the overall tendency is certainly improvement.'' Relations between Beijing and the Vatican have been strained since China's unilateral ordination of three bishops last year. A Hong Kong newspaper reported on Thursday that the Pope has approved the ordination of a Catholic priest selected by Beijing, which may help improve ties.

REUTERS SHB VC1525