Pope Benedict XVI wipes his face at a meeting with German pilgrims in the Vatican. (Reuters)

Vatican City, April 25 (Reuters): The new Pope Benedict praised dialogue with Muslims for the first time today and issued another call for Christian unity, renewing a theme he has made a hallmark of the early days of his papacy.

At a separate audience for some of the German pilgrims who flocked to his inaugural Mass yesterday, the Bavarian-born former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger also showed a touch of his human side ? cracking his first papal joke.

He apologised to the crowd for arriving late, but said his lack of famed German punctuality might be a sign that ?I have become a bit of an Italian?. ?I have been in Rome for 23 years, but I am still a Bavarian,? he then said to cheers.

Ratzinger, 78, had a reputation in some quarters for austere conservatism as the Vatican?s long-serving enforcer of orthodoxy at the head of the church?s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

He dismayed Protestants, Buddhists and Hindus with criticisms of their faiths in that role and upset secular but mainly Muslim Turkey last year with opposition to the country?s quest to join the EU.

Since his election as Roman Catholic Pontiff, he has gone out of his way to stress Christian unity and inter-faith dialogue.

At a reception today for some of the leaders of other religions who attended his inauguration, he acknowledged Muslim clerics in the group and said the church wanted to continue to build ?bridges of friendship? with other religions.

He said he appreciated the ?growth of dialogue between Muslims and Christians, both at a local and international level?. Though Benedict greeted ?believers and non-believers alike? in his first public sermon yesterday, it was the first time he had referred specifically to Islam.

He also renewed previous pledges to pursue paths to Christian unity, telling Protestant and Orthodox Christian leaders that such steps were in the interests of peace. The late Pope John Paul enjoyed enormous respect from non-Catholics for his efforts to forge closer ties to other branches of Christianity and other religions.