Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Pope Benedict XVI met with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Rome today in an audience that was unpublicized by the Vatican.

The audience did not appear on the Vatican's page of daily appointments. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after the country's failed revolt against Communist China, a country with which the Vatican is trying to repair diplomatic ties.

The meeting with the Dalai Lama was ``private, a courtesy, of religious content,'' Ansa news agency quoted the Vatican's Deputy Press Director Father Ciro Benedettini as saying.

China has refused to establish diplomatic links with the Vatican until the Holy See ends its ties to Taiwan. Tibet, which has been under Chinese control since the 1750s, had varying degrees of autonomy until the Communist Party took over China in 1950. The Dalai Lama presides over the Tibetan community in exile in Dharamsala, India.

The pope also met with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi earlier in the day, as well as Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski yesterday, both of whom were documented on the Vatican's Web site.

Today's encounter was the Dalai Lama's first meeting with Benedict, though he met with his predecessor Pope John Paul II as many as nine times.

Last Updated: October 13, 2006 07:22 EDT