The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will meet Pope Benedict XVI for the first time on Monday.

Anglican insiders said it was "highly significant" that the Pope should choose to meet the honorary head of the Anglican communion in the very first hours of his official pontificate.

The papal audience in the Vatican follows his attendance at tomorrow’s inaugural mass at St Peter’s, when Dr Williams will become the first serving Archbishop of Canterbury to attend a papal inauguration since the Reformation. On Sunday evening Dr Williams will preach at the Anglican church of All Saints in Rome.

After a chilly period for Anglicanism under the last Pope because of the ordination of women priests, Benedict XVI appears eager to usher in a new era of closeness between the two communions.

Even in his last job, he took a close personal interest in Anglican affairs. As Cardinal Ratzinger, he went so far as to write a letter of support to traditionalist Anglicans in the US meeting in opposition to the consecration of an openly gay bishop.

In his first homily, he signalled his interest in building ecumenical bridges. However, five years ago he declared that Protestant churches were not churches "in the proper sense".

Dr Williams met the late Pope John Paul II once, in October 2003 in Rome. But Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was not present at that meeting.

Monday’s audience will include Dr Drexel Gomez, Archbishop of the West Indies. Dr Gomez, one of the leaders of the Anglican Communion’s traditionalist wing, will also be in Rome for the inauguration, as chairman of the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations.

Archbishop Gomez said: "I deem it a singular honour and privilege to have been invited to attend the inauguration of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. As a member of the Anglican delegation, I will be able to represent the Province of the West Indies and the Anglicans of the South on this historic occasion."

By comparison the liberal primate of the Anglican church in the US, Bishop Frank Griswold, has been invited to neither the inauguration nor the audience.

The US church will instead be represented by Bishop Pierre Whalon of Europe, and Bishop Christopher Epting, the Bishop Griswold’s deputy for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations.

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