|PIC1|A state-approved Catholic bishop of Beijing was installed to applause from parishioners on Friday in a tightly orchestrated ceremony that avoided mention of the Vatican, which many present said quietly backed the ordination.

Li Shan became bishop of the Chinese capital in a Mass that mixed pungent incense and soaring hymns with delicate evasion of whether his appointment was blessed by Pope Benedict.

China's 8 to 12 million Catholics are divided between a state-sanctioned church and an underground church wary of government ties.

Members of the state-approved church also honour the Pope, but the Communist-run government restricts formal contacts with Rome, which has had no diplomatic ties with Beijing since 1951.

Li's appointment has become a test of relations between the Catholic church and China at a time when Pope Benedict has urged better ties and also healing between divided believers, while demanding that the Vatican choose bishops, possibly with some government consultation.

Li made no mention of papal approval during his consecration, attended by dozens of bishops, priests and nuns and hundreds of lay Catholics who spilled out of the 400-year-old Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception southwest of Tiananmen Square.

He instead vowed to lead the city's faithful and also "protect the unity of the state and social stability and unity".

But several priests and parishioners said they believed he had won quiet Vatican backing, which he may make public later.

"Of course, Vatican approval is important for us," said parishioner Chang Shuhua. "I think he's been approved by both sides. That's most important, because it means then that he's a true follower of the apostles."

A senior Vatican official said this week that Li's appointment should be a "favourable step forward, a good occasion to build on something".

Two sources close to church affairs also told Reuters on Friday that they believed Li has received express approval from Rome. They both requested anonymity.

"It's widely said among the clergy that Li has indicated he is acting with the approval of the Pope," said a priest at the ceremony. "We can't know for sure, but we all hope that he does."

Beijing has publicly rejected a formal role for the Vatican in appointing Chinese bishops as interference in internal affairs. It has demanded that the Holy See sever ties with Taiwan, which split from China in 1949 after the Nationalists lost a mainland civil war to Mao Zedong's Communists.

A spokesman for the state-sanctioned church said he did not know whether the Pope had been involved.

"Now there are no normalised relations between China and the Vatican, so whether other people have issued an approval is something we don't know," said Father Sun Shang'en, who was once Li's teacher and oversaw the election that nominated him.

In 2006, after China consecrated three bishops apparently without consulting the Vatican, the Holy See denounced it as subversive and the Beijing government accused the Vatican of interference in its internal affairs.

But many bishops in the state-sanctioned church have nonetheless quietly won papal blessing.

The death in April of Beijing bishop Fu Tieshan, who did not have Rome's blessing, left a vacancy in China's most prominent diocese where Party authorities keep a particularly close eye.

At Friday's consecration, police and security officials kept a wary eye on parishioners and on foreign reporters, who were barred from entering the cathedral.