MOSCOW (AP) The interim leader of the Russian Orthodox Church has been elected as the new patriarch of the world s largest Orthodox Christian church.

A church official says Metropolitan Kirill easily beat out a more conservative rival in a vote Tuesday by electors who included clerics and laymen. He received 508 of the 700 votes cast.

Kirill will be installed Sunday as the successor to Moscow Patriarch Alexy II, who died in December after leading Russia s dominant faith in a powerful post-Soviet revival.

Kirill served for years as the church s external relations chief. He is seen as a modernizer more likely than his rivals to seek a measure of independence from the state and better relations with the Vatican.

First Published January 27, 2009, 8:10 p.m.