Pope better, Vatican hopes for weekend audience

Pope John Paul is making a steady recovery from flu and breathing difficulties and Vatican officials are hopeful he will be strong enough to address Roman Catholic faithful this Sunday from his hospital suite.

In a brief statement yesterday, the Vatican said the 84-year-old Pontiff had spent a peaceful second night in Rome's Gemelli hospital, that his throat ailment was "in regression" and that he had not suffered any further spasms.

"The Holy Father's general condition and his respiratory condition are evolving positively," the statement said.

The frail leader of the world's Roman Catholics, who came down with influenza at the weekend, was rushed to hospital on Tuesday after suffering a momentary blockage to his breathing.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters that medical tests had produced "satisfactory results" and that the next bulletin would be issued at noon (1100 GMT) today.

Asked when the Pope might leave hospital, he told reporters: "It will be up to the doctors to decide. However, in my experience, we're talking about seven days..."

Vatican sources said the Pope would almost certainly make an address from the hospital on Sunday at noon, the time he normally delivers his weekly blessing on St Peter's Square.

But they said it was still not clear if it would be live from the window of his 10th floor hospital room or from inside and whether it would be live or pre-recorded.

The Pope has hardly ever missed his Sunday blessing. He even made one from the same hospital bed on May 17, 1981, just four days after he nearly died in an assassination attempt.

However, a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that had been planned for Tuesday was cancelled and she will see Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano instead, Vatican sources said.

Church officials have been at pains to play down the latest alarm over the Pope's health, which has declined markedly over the past decade, ravaged by Parkinson's disease and arthritis.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper yesterday: "The danger has passed."