Vatican envoy hopes Pope visits Vietnam this year

HANOI (Reuters) - A Vatican envoy holding talks with Vietnamese officials on the eventual establishment of diplomatic ties said on Thursday that he hoped the Pope would be able to visit the country this year.

A Vietnamese Foreign Ministry official however said no formal proposal for such a visit had been received.

Hanoi and the Vatican have not had formal relations since the 1950s although Vietnam is home to more than 6 million Catholics, making it one of the biggest communities of faithful in Asia.

The two sides have held 18 meetings in the past two decades, but this week's talks represented the first meeting of a joint working group on normalisation.

"This is my wish," Vatican Undersecretary of State Monsignor Pietro Parolin told reporters when asked if he thought the Pope could visit the Southeast Asian country this year.

"But of course it depends on many things to be discussed, to be reflected upon, and I think that it's impossible to say yes or no." He added that the question had not been discussed in meetings with the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry and the government's religious affairs committee.

Hanoi has rejected previous requests for a papal visit to the country where religion remains under state supervision. Vietnam's 86 million population is mostly Buddhist.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said the government had not received any proposal from the Vatican for a papal visit.

"Our main objective at present is to carry on the meeting of the joint working group in order to establish diplomatic relations," he told a news conference.