Vatican envoys to go to Vietnam to discuss ties

VATICAN CITY, Mar 1 (Reuters) A high-level Vatican delegation will travel to Vietnam next week to discuss ways of moving towards forging diplomatic relations, Vatican officials today said.

The delegation, headed by Monsignor Piero Parolin, undersecretary at the Vatican's Secretary of State, will meet officials of the communist government and Catholic leaders during the week-long trip, which starts on Monday.

It follows last January's visit to Pope Benedict by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who became his country's highest ranking official to meet a Pope.

The Vatican called that visit an ''important step towards the normalisation of bilateral relations'' and added the Holy See was pleased that recent years had seen concrete progress for religious freedom in the country.

Last month, a Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesman said Dung had assigned diplomats to conduct talks to work out appropriate measures for a ''roadmap'' leading to diplomatic ties.

Hundreds of thousands of Catholics moved from North Vietnam to South Vietnam when the country split after French colonial rule ended and became some of Hanoi's most implacable foes.

The Vatican's ties with Hanoi have suffered because the Church is associated with Vietnam's colonial past and because the government did not always agree to the appointment of bishops by previous Popes.

But there has been rapid improvement in relations in recent years.

Last November, the US State Department removed Vietnam from a blacklist of countries it says severely restrict religious rights and President George W Bush attended a church service in Hanoi during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit.

Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen has said the warming relations between the Vatican and Vietnam would be a good model to follow for the thorny relations between the Vatican and China.

Beijing's communist government does not allow its Catholics to recognise the Pope's authority.

Reuters SY DB2242