The New Pope: Benedict 'promised to Modify Hard Line'

Pope Benedict XVI used his first sermon yesterday to promise "open and sincere" - though limited - dialogue with other religions, in an early attempt to soften his image.

His words gave substance to reports in Rome of a behind-the-scenes deal hastening his election on Tuesday evening. The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was said to have given private assurances to his more liberal colleagues in the conclave that he would modify his hard line if elected pope.

The assurances were enough for Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the reformers' candidate, to swing sufficient votes behind his rival for the sake of church unity and a rapid result.

The explanation may indicate why, with an apparently open race, the new pope was elected on only the fourth ballot on the second day of the conclave.

The 78-year-old German, who has previously branded other religions as defective, gave the 114 cardinals who had elected him a 15-minute homily in Latin during the course of a morning mass in the Sistine Chapel yesterday.

As the world's Catholics absorbed the choice of the new pope, the service, relayed on screens in St Peter's Square, attracted only a few hundred viewers, in contrast to the thousands who flocked to the area the night before and who had waited during the drawn-out death struggle of Pope John Paul II.

The new pope, formerly the Vatican's defender of doctrinal orthodoxy, said he would work "tirelessly" for the full and visible unity of all Christians. But he hinted that other faiths would have to come to Catholicism.

"Expressions of goodwill are not enough for this, concrete actions that enter into souls and rouse consciences are needed, requiring of each the interior conversion that is a precondition for any progress along the path of ecumenism," he said.

He described himself as having been chosen by God - "the Lord has wanted me as His vicar" - and suggested that he would be a "rock on which everyone can lean with confidence".

It was apparent, however, that those originally opposed to a Ratzinger papacy had been caught out as his bandwagon got under way without a viable and agreed alternative candidate, Cardinal Martini being aged, retired and in ill health.

Yesterday, those who had earlier viewed the prospect of his papacy with trepidation loyally fell into line in welcoming the election - some more equivocally than others - and expressing hopes that the oldest man to be elected to the church's highest office in nearly 300 years would somehow change, even at such a late stage of life.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, leader of the church in England and Wales, said: "He has become Peter not for one group or another but for the whole church. He may be a man of surprises. Looked at objectively, he was a very strong candidate."

Asked about the speed of the conclave, the cardinal said: "The fact that it came out early, it was, yes, interesting."

He described the new pope as very spiritual, very open, very courteous and highly intelligent. "Pope Benedict has a platform and a place he did not have before and responsibilities which he did not have, and I think he will be aware of that."

It emerged that the new pope entertained the cardinals to a supper of bean soup, cold meats and salad following his election. Champagne was drunk but, in contrast to his ebullient and charismatic predecessor, the songs afterwards were not Polish folk tunes but hymns in Latin.