A Christian author has been permitted to sign his books at a press conference at the Beijing International Book Fair, a first, according to Chinese officials.

Luis Palau in China

"This is the first time in the history of China that an international religious leader has been permitted to sign copies of his book in a large public secular venue," said Shen Weiping of the China Association for International Friendly Contact.

The signing was by evangelist Luis Palau, whose book, "Riverside Talks: A Friendly Dialogue Between an Atheist and a Christian," was released Wednesday at a Beijing news conference cut short when the crowd of journalists, photographers and television crews rushed the stage to get autographed copies and interview the authors.

It's the first time such a book has been issued in China, according to Craig Chastain of the Luis Palau Association, because it has a clear statement of the beliefs of Christianity and a description of how to become a Christian.

There were 500 copies of the book prepared for the book fair, but they were snatched up immediately.

"We had to scramble to have a couple to bring back with us," Chastain told WorldNetDaily.

Publication in the United States, through Broadman & Holman, is expected in a few months, he said.

Palau wrote the book with Zhao Qizheng, the vice chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and former minister of information for the People's Republic of China.

As he used the book, Palau also used the press attention to explain what is meant when Christians say they follow Jesus or have peace with God.

"I believe with my whole heart that God loves China. I believe He has a special message for China and wants nothing more than to share His love with the entire nation," Palau said.

Zhao told reporters that the book – as well as his friendship with Palau – models how two people with different ideologies and backgrounds can have a dialogue and be friends.

The book was started several years ago when Zhao suggested a project to build bridges and mutual understanding, and the two held a series of face-to-face conversations.

Tapes of those meetings were turned into book form.

The project, the authors said, is a dialogue, not a debate between opposing perspectives – an atheist and a theist, a scientist and a Christian evangelist, a Marxist scholar and a religious scholar, a leader from the East and a leader from the West.

They exchanged ideas and beliefs on ethics, politics, atheism, Confucianism, Chinese and Western cultures, the Bible, religion, history, creation, philosophy and the relevance of Jesus Christ to society.

"I did overcome my initial concern about the difficulty of communicating between people with different cultural backgrounds," Zhao said. "I now believe that in-depth understanding is possible as long as there is a will to communicate."

He said the book is to convey the conviction humanity's "commonality" will allow differences and misunderstandings to be overcome.

"We soon realized we have a lot in common as human beings," Palau said, "that we respect each other and that we enjoy each other's company."

During one of the conversations, Palau received a request from the White House that he join President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush for a Christian church service in Beijing.

"It wasn't that long ago that people were not allowed to worship openly in this society," Bush said at the time. "My hope is that the government of China will not fear Christians who gather to worship openly. A healthy society is a society that welcomes all faiths and gives people a chance to express themselves through worship with the Almighty."

Palau, who has preached in China a number of times, said his goal is to hold an open-air festival in China, with government approval. His ministries group has staged numerous festivals from South America to Florida to the United Kingdom. They draw tens of thousands of people with Christian speakers, musicians and entertainment.

The new book is being released throughout China in government bookstores and in thousands of other outlets in both Chinese and English.

"My dream would be that every Chinese person would find peace with God through Jesus. That’s my dream," Palau said in the book. "Because we all know we're going to die, and the interesting thing is that Jesus offers the absolute assurance of eternal life to every sinner who repents and believes in Him."

“", too, have a dream," wrote Zhao. "My dream is that the exchanges between religious believers and non-believers will become an important part of contemporary culture."