Pope touches down in US after Cuba visit

The 78-year-old pontiff touched down at the Andrews Air Force Base near the capital, Washington D.C., on Tuesday, his plane adorned with the flags of the Vatican State and the US.

Francis was greeted by US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, as well as Vice President Joe Biden. A private meeting was arranged with the Obama family, before the pope headed for downtown Washington.

One of the planned highlights of the trip is an inter-faith ceremony at New York's Ground Zero, and a procession through Central Park.

The Argentine - who helped mediate a dialogue between Washington and Havana - is also set to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday, the fourth pope to do so.

Francis was expected to deliver some provocative messages on his US tour, which will include visits to Washington, New York and Philadelphia. He is expected to criticize the global dominance of finance and condemn world powers over their failure to end conflict.

The pope has pleased many liberal-leaning US Catholics with a shift in emphasis towards caring for the environment and concern for the poor. Some conservatives, however, have been dismayed by his statements on the danger posed by climate change and his more liberal opinions on homosexuality and remarriage.

Republican Congressman Paul Gosar, who is Catholic, has said he will not attend a historic address to Congress by the pope to protest his "leftist" views.

Pope Francis flew out of Cuba's second city Santiago on Tuesday morning on the same Alitalia plane that brought him from Rome. While in the air, the pope tweeted his thanks to Cubans.

Cuban President Raul Castro saw the pope off at the airport after a three-day stay in the country. His visit took in three cities - Havana, Holguin and Santiago - with a papal mass being held in each.

Before leaving, Francis told the congregation in Santiago - the birthplace of Fidel Castro's uprising against dictator Fulgencio Batista - that a new kind of revolution was needed now, a "revolution of tenderness."

He urged Cubans to "build bridges, to break down walls, to sow seeds of reconciliation" as Cuba and the US seek rapprochement after decades of animosity.

rc/msh (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)