Crowds throng Pompeii for a glimpse of Pope

They came in their thousands, doubling the population of the ancient city of Pompeii, straining to catch a glimpse of the man many fear may not make it outside the Vatican again.

Pope John Paul II, frail and ailing, his head sunk on to his chest, flew by helicopter the 160 miles south from the Vatican to pray at Pompeii's shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary.

The 83-year-old pontiff, whose deteriorating health has alarmed Catholics across the world in recent weeks, has no further trips scheduled.

His helicopter left him in a millennia-old gymnasium amid the ruins of ancient Pompeii, where Roman sportsmen once trained before Vesuvius buried the city in AD79 with its volcanic debris.

From there, the Pope headed for modern Pompeii, where he was driven around the town square, sitting in a throne-like chair in his open-topped "popemobile".

Despite obvious physical discomfort, he managed to wave and smile at around 30,000 delighted pilgrims. He read with long pauses and slurred words and skipped several lines of his initial address. The crowd cheered him on when he paused for breath.

When others took the microphone, Italian state television cut into the live broadcast with images of a younger John Paul II, who visited Pompeii in the early days of his papacy, 24 years ago.

The Pope is particularly devoted to the Virgin Mary, whom he believes saved him from a 1981 assassination attempt.

"I wanted this pilgrimage of mine to carry the sense of an appeal for peace," the pontiff told the crowd.

The new millennium was already "lashed by the winds of war and stained with blood in so many regions of the world," he lamented. "Pray for me in this sanctuary today and always," he said before heading back to his helipad.

"Viva il papa" (Long live the pope) flags fluttered above the crowd of young and old, many clutching rosary beads under the palm trees of Pompeii's square.

"We're glad his health has held out so that we could see him," said Jeanette McDermott, a 70-year-old pilgrim from Warminster, Pennsylvania.

"I had to come," said 13-year-old Francesco Saverio Milano, who walked for two hours from the nearby coastal town of Castellammare, wearing his favourite Manchester United T-shirt, to secure a place in the front row.

"This man is going to go down as one of the greatest in history. One day I want to be able to tell my grandchildren I saw him," he said.

The Pope has not walked in public for several months, because of advancing Parkin son's disease and an arthritic knee.

Numerous tailor-made electronic devices lift him in and out of planes and helicopters and ferry him along the corridors of the Vatican.

An intestinal ailment forced him to skip a public audience at the Vatican on September 24 and last week a senior European cardinal announced on the radio that the pontiff was nearing his end.

The Pope has insisted he will stick to his busy schedule, building up to a 10-day Vatican celebration for the 25th anniversary of his election on October 16.