The Roman Catholic Church elected Germany's Joseph Ratzinger, a staunch conservative, as its first new pope of the third millennium on Tuesday with the task of ushering its 1.1 billion followers into a new era. The 78-year-old former cardinal, the Vatican's doctrinal enforcer under John Paul II, will take the name Benedict XVI, the Vatican announced, and later said he would be inaugurated on Sunday. A delirious crowd approaching 200,000 cheered and waved wildly as Ratzinger, the 265th pontiff in the Church's 2,000-year history, smiled and acknowledged the applause from the curtain-draped balcony of Saint Peter's basilica.
His first words were met by a huge ovation.
"Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II the cardinals have elected me a simple and humble labourer in the vineyard of the Lord," he said, paying tribute to his immediate predecessor.
"I console myself with the fact that the Lord knows how to work and act, even with insufficient tools, and above all I trust in your prayers, in the joy of the resurrected Lord, faithful in his permanent aid.
"Let us go forward, the Lord will help us, and Mary, his most holy Mother, is on our side."
Among the first to react, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Benedict XVI would be "a worthy successor" to John Paul II.
UN chief Kofi Annan added his congratulations. "The United Nations and the Holy See share a strong commitment to peace, social justice, human dignity, religious freedom and mutual respect among the world's religions," his office said in a statement.
Bells pealed out across Munich, Germany's third largest city, on the news. Church officials there said a mass would be celebrated later Tuesday in the city's Frauenkirche cathedral.
In Poland, Nobel peace laureate Lech Walesa, who had a close relationship with the Polish-born John Paul II, said Ratzinger was a good choice to follow his work.
"This is a good choice, the continuation of John Paul II. He will continue the mission of our dear pope," Walesa told AFP.
In Paris, too, bells rang out at Notre Dame Cathedral, where the esplanade was crowded with people watching huge television screens.
But among the applause there were a few scattered boos as well, indicating some of the strength of feeling against the Church's conservative stance.
In London, Marie Stopes International, one of the world's main pro-choice groups, said Ratzinger's election was "a missed opportunity" if he pursued the same line as John Paul II against contraception and condoms.
He added: "It's regrettable, because that will impact so terribly on the lives of millions of people, particularly in the developing world."
The appointment of a man expected to continue John Paul II's conservative line will also be a blow to a majority of American Roman Catholics, who reject the Vatican stances on matters like abortion, divorce and homosexuality.
The announcement that the 115 cardinals sequestered inside the Sistine had chosen a new pontiff on only the second day of their conclave came when white smoke billowed out of a chimney atop the Vatican.
It sent the waiting thousands on the square into raptures, but it was not until another agonising wait of more than 10 minutes that the bells pealed to confirm the election.
Within no time, other bells began answering back all over Rome.
Ratzinger now has the onerous burden of guiding the Church into a new era fraught with moral dilemmas and dissension over a host of issues ranging from emptying pews to contraception and celibacy.
His hard-line approach, nationality and age had all been seen as handicaps, according to many Vatican watchers, but what was never doubted was his power and influence.
Born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn in the southern German state of Bavaria, Ratzinger was ordained into the priesthood in 1951, before becoming the archbishop of Munich in March 1977.
Four months later Pope Paul VI made him a cardinal.
Ratzinger's fierce opposition to the liberal fringe of the Church has made him a foe of progressive Catholics.
He has rejected the ordination of women and marriage for priests, and also opposes homosexuality and communism, and he has never been afraid of upsetting political sensibilities.