A joint working group agreed at its latest meeting in Hanoi that in the near future relations would be upgraded to the level of residential representatives in both Hanoi and Rome, a Vatican statement said today.

This would be one step short of full diplomatic relations with ambassadors, which have been the stated aim of the talks since they began in 2009.

Vietnam broke relations with the Vatican after the communists took over the reunified country at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

At the time, the authorities viewed the Catholic Church in Vietnam as having been too close historically to the former colonial power, France.

There are about 7 million Catholics out of population of about 97 million.

Most Vietnamese practice folk religions or Buddhism.