Recent talks were held after the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith examined the latest response from the Society, to the "doctrinal preamble" presented to them last September.

"Some observations were formulated which will be kept in mind in further discussions," said Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, following a meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Bishop Fellay, Superior General of the SSPX, has been generally positive about the possibility of reconciliation with Rome but the society's three other bishops have expressed serious reservations about the process.

"In consideration of the positions taken by the three other bishops of the Society of St Pius, their situation will have to be treated separately and individually," Fr Lombardi said in a statement.

Even if the SSPX as a whole is reconciled with Rome, he said, "the individual bishops each must make a commitment" to full communion with Rome. "It's not as if there will be one solution that automatically extends to all."

In addition to their reservations, Fr Lombardi said, Bishop Richard Williamson's public denials of the Holocaust and anti-Semitic statements would also require separate discussions.

"It is not that this is a process that necessarily will reach a solution that embraces all the positions" found among all the SSPX members, Fr Lombardi said.

"Obviously, the decision is in the Pope's hands" and he can act when and how he wants, "but despite how it may have seemed - that we were talking about a brief amount of time - it is a process that continues," Fr Lombardi said.

"It would be premature to guess when the process will end," he added.

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The Society effectively broke with Rome in 1988, when its founder, the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, ordained four bishops without the permission of Blessed John Paul II in a protest against changes of the Second Vatican Council.

In April the Society responded to a "doctrinal preamble" stipulating the group's assent to certain Church teachings as a prerequisite for reconciliation. The Vatican has yet to respond, but the director of the Vatican press office initially described the latest position as a "step forward".

However, the Society's other three bishops warned Bishop Fellay that the Vatican's apparent offer to establish the group as a personal prelature - a status currently held only by Opus Dei - constituted a "trap" and urged him to say no. Bishop Fellay admitted that reconciliation may cause a split in the Society.

But he spoke appreciatively of the Pope's efforts to correct "progressive" deviations from Catholic teaching and tradition since Vatican II. "Very, very delicately - he tries not to break things - but tries also to put in some important corrections," the bishop said.

While not admitting that Vatican II is essentially in continuity with the Church's tradition - a position which many in the SSPX have vocally disputed - Bishop Fellay showed some sympathy to the idea. When asked if Vatican II was part of Catholic tradition, he responded, "I would hope so."

Bishop Fellay indicated that Pope Benedict was pushing the process. "Personally, I would have wished to wait for some more time to see things clearer," he said, "but once again it really appears that the Holy Father wants it to happen now."

However the vice-president of the German Bundestag expressed concerns over the negotiations as the SSPX refuses to accept Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council document which rejected all forms of anti-Semitism and prepared the ground for a new relationship between the Church and both Judaism and Israel.

Wolfgang Thierse, met Cardinal Kurt Koch, the President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, who assured Thierse that the SSPX must accept the authority of the Church's Magisterium and must recognise the Second Vatican Council.

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