THE Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall entered the Vatican yesterday for a historic meeting with Pope Benedict XVI.

The Royal couple were greeted by an honour guard of the Swiss Guards and a Vatican nobleman before meeting the Pope for the first time.

Charles and Camilla, who was wearing a black dress, emerged from a convoy of cars inside a courtyard in the Catholic city.

Charles was having a private audience with the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Vatican for the first time since 1985.

The visit to the Vatican takes on added significance, following the recent announcement by Prime Minister Gordon Brown that he has been in talks with Buckingham Palace about reversing a ban on heirs to the throne marrying Catholics.

Mr Brown is expected to raise the issue of ending centuries of discrimination against Catholics at a meeting of Commonwealth heads of government in November.

The visit was the high-light of a two-day tour of Italy, where Charles is campaigning for his envir-onmental reforms, before they travel to Germany for a further two days.