Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI greeted a group of priests from China ``with particular affection'' Wednesday, the first time a pontiff has publicly welcomed members of the state-controlled church in the latest sign of warming relations between the Vatican and Beijing.
The Vatican would not say whether the 28 priests were from the Communist Party-controlled Catholic Patriotic Association or the underground church loyal to Rome. But the Catholic news agency AsiaNews, which has close ties to the Vatican and has proved reliable on Vatican-China developments, said they were members of Beijing's official church.
It was believed to be the first time a pope had publicly welcomed members of China's state-controlled church at the Vatican, which for more than 50 years has supported the underground Catholic church whose priests have been routinely arrested and harassed by Chinese authorities.
``I greet with particular affection the group of priests from China,'' Benedict said in English, also listing other groups from Hong Kong, Ireland, the Philippines and the United States who attended the Vatican audience.
The Chinese priests, sitting in the front row and dressed in black with white collars, then stood up, sang a hymn, clapped and waved to the pope.
``Thank you and God bless you,'' Benedict said before moving on to the next group of people he greeted.
China forced its Roman Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, shortly after the officially atheist Communist Party took power. Worship is allowed only in government-controlled churches, which recognize the pope as a spiritual leader but appoint their own priests and bishops.
Millions of Chinese, however, belong to unofficial congregations loyal to Rome. Many unofficial congregations hold services openly, but in some regions they are routinely harassed and their priests and bishops arrested.
Benedict has been reaching out to Beijing, asking countries that do not have ties with the Holy See to establish them soon. Last month, a new auxiliary bishop of Shanghai was consecrated with the tacit approval of the Vatican.
China has said it is willing to improve relations with Rome but says it wants the Vatican to sever ties with Taiwan, which it considers a renegade province since they split during a civil war in 1949.
The Vatican has not hid its desire for improved relations, but it is treading carefully. It has refused to publicly confirm its position on issues such as the consecration of the Shanghai bishop or provide details on the priests at Wednesday's audience.
The prelate who introduced them at the audience said only that they came from China and were taking part in a course on seminary formation.
Yet Benedict himself said last month he was ``hopeful'' that dialogue with the Beijing government would continue. Asked during his vacation in the Italian Alps about the progress with China, which by some estimates has 12 million Catholics, Benedict replied: ``We're hopeful; we hope the dialogue goes forward.''
His spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls responded to the same question by saying: ``You can't ignore that there are several million Catholics in China. It's clear that John Paul II looked for contact with this reality of China and Benedict XVI is also looking for it.''
Some Vatican analysts have noted that China may be more open to dialogue with Benedict than his predecessor because the Polish-born John Paul was credited with helping bring down communism in Europe.
Wednesday's audience was the first since before Benedict left for vacation July 11. He flew to Rome by helicopter from his summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo to attend and was greeted by some 6,000 well-wishers.