VATICAN CITY (UCAN) -- Pope John Paul II welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Vatican June 5, but Putin did not invite the pope to Russia, a matter that had been the subject of much speculation.

The two leaders spent 30 minutes in private to discuss cooperation between the Holy See and Russia, with interpreters the only other people present, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the same day.

He refused to comment on whether the subject of Putin inviting the pope to visit Moscow came up during the private conversation.

The Vatican statement on the meeting did not mention this, but it spoke of agreement to focus attention in Holy See-Russia relations on issues relating to disarmament and the international situation.

The following day, though, Putin told reporters that it would not be wise to invite the pope to Moscow until circumstances change.

Asked why the Russian Orthodox Church has opposed such a visit, he answered, "The reason is that the Orthodox Church is weak. After 70 years under communism, the Church is debilitated."

Asked whether the invitations made to Pope John Paul by former Russian presidents Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev still stood, Putin said that he is not responsible for what his predecessors have said or done.

A few hours before Putin's arrival in Rome, reports circulated that Orthodox Patriarch Alexey II of Moscow had withdrawn his objection to an invitation for the pope to visit Moscow.

The patriarch has accused the Vatican of trying to win converts to Catholicism in traditional Orthodox territory since the lifting of religious restrictions after the collapse of communism in 1989.

Navarro-Valls cited the more positive tone expressed by Patriarch Alexey in comments just before Putin's arrival.

Later, though, a Vatican-based news agency reported a spokesperson for the patriarch commending Putin's decision not to invite the pope to Russia. The decision showed that Russia-Holy See relations are not unaffected by Catholic-Russian Orthodox Church relations, the report added.

The agency earlier reported Bishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, Moscow-based apostolic administrator of Northern European Russia, as saying that Putin's visit showed Moscow's high regard for the pope.

Bishop Kondrusiewicz also reportedly said that goodwill could overcome problems in Catholic-Russian Orthodox relations and that collaboration between the two Churches on re-evangelization would benefit the Russian people.

The Vatican's Annuario Pontificio 2000 yearbook lists four functioning Catholic apostolic administrations in Russia: Northern European Russia, with 200,000 Catholics; Central European Russia, with 35,000, Western Siberia with 1 million and Eastern Siberia with 50,000. All four are headed by bishops.

It lists a total of 328 parishes served by 83 diocesan and 109 religious priests, 222 sisters and 148 brothers. The number of seminarians is 47.

Russia's population is about 147 million people.

In February 1998 then president Yeltsin visited Pope John Paul at the Vatican and renewed his "standing invitation" for the pontiff to visit Russia.

The pope voiced his concern during the visit about Russia's religious freedom law, which Yeltsin had signed in September 1997.

The law, which supporters said was aimed to curb activities of religious sects and the proliferation of foreigners proselytizing in Russia, enshrined Orthodoxy as the leading religion and curbed the rights of other religions.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano and Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov joined Pope John Paul and Putin following their private discussion June 5.

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