Medvedev to meet with pope

MOSCOW, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev plans a brief working visit to the Vatican next Thursday for talks with Pope Benedict XVI, a spokesman said.

Medvedev said earlier that Moscow planned to improve ties with the Vatican.

Relations have been strained in recent years over charges the Roman Catholic Church was trying to spread its influence in former Soviet states following the collapse of the U.S.S.R., RIA Novosti reported.

The late Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Alexy II refused to meet with then Pope John Paul II. He said further outstanding disputes needed to be resolved before there would be a meeting with Benedict.

When Alexy II died in December at the age of 79, his successor Patriarch Kirill, who was seen as a liberal in the largely traditionalist church, was welcomed by the Vatican.

In March 2007, then Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to the pope during a visit to the Vatican to help in reconciling the two divided Churches.