Istanbul, Turkey - Turkey's foreign ministry says the nation "attaches great importance to the visit by Pope Benedict XVI" that is being considered for November, though details haven't been confirmed.
The statement followed last week's comment by the Vatican's top ecumenical official, Cardinal Walter Kasper, that Benedict was interested in visiting Turkey.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's 200 million Eastern Orthodox, has invited Benedict to Istanbul for Orthodoxy's feast of St. Andrew Nov. 30.
Benedict's young pontificate has emphasized healing the split with the Orthodox, which dates from A.D. 1054.
In recent years, the Orthodox have been upset by Roman Catholic missionary work in eastern Europe, where there are also property disputes. Tensions heightened last month when Ukraine's Eastern Rite Catholics moved their headquarters to Kiev over objections from Ukrainian nationalists.
As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the pope questioned whether the European Union should open membership to predominantly Muslim Turkey. Asked if that could affect a Turkish visit, Kasper said Ratzinger's words were a "private phrase, not an official position of the Holy See."