The Vatican hopes that a meeting between the heads of the Roman Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church will be possible under the churches' current leaders, a Vatican representative said Thursday.

Ties between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Vatican have been strained over accusations the Catholic Church has sought to spread its influence and convert believers in traditionally Orthodox former Soviet states since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

However, hopes for a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia have recently grown.

"We are open to this meeting and hope it will become possible during the current pontificate. But we should respect the opinion of the other side, we do not want to and cannot push for it," Cardinal Walter Kasper, the head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told RIA Novosti.

"I think this meeting will become possible because it is in the interest of both churches. Pope Benedict XVI and Patriarch Kirill understand each other very well, are close to each other," he said.

The previous head of the Russian Church, the late Patriarch Alexy II, refused to meet with the previous pope, John Paul II, and said outstanding disputes needed to be resolved before any meeting could go ahead with Benedict XVI.

Alexy II died in December 2008 at the age of 79 and was succeeded by Kirill, who was seen as liberal by the conservative standards of the largely traditionalist Russian Orthodox Church.

As head of the church's external relations for more than a decade, Kirill led dialogue with the Roman Catholic and other churches.

As a result of the Great Schism of 1054, Christianity split into the Eastern branch (the Orthodox Church) and the Western branch (the Roman Catholic Church). They have a number of theological and political differences.

Kasper on Wednesday met with Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, who heads the Moscow Patriarchate's External Church Relations Department and is currently on a visit to Rome.

Kasper said there are spiritual problems facing both churches, adding that "secularism" and "spiritual emptiness" were among them.

VATICAN, May 20 (RIA Novosti)