Pope John Paul II will visit Switzerland today to address crowds of young Catholics. The visit follows yesterday's encounter with US President, Mr George W. Bush.
The ailing pope, whose pleas against the war in Iraq last year fell on deaf ears in Washington, hosted the US president yesterday, told him Iraq had to regain sovereignty swiftly and said he deplored the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers.
He will spend 36 hours in the capital Berne to preside at a jamboree of tens of thousands of Catholic youth, amid tight security and with police braced for a protest against the visit.
The 84-year-old pope, who has Parkinson's disease, had difficulty pronouncing words at his brief meeting with Bush.
Saturday's Swiss visit, his third since his election in 1978, involves a light schedule of three main events and ample time for rest at the Viktoriaheim, a Catholic-run hospice which will be his base.
He will be welcomed at Payerne military airport near Berne by members of the Swiss goverment and attend a festival for some 12,000 young Catholics on Saturday.
Tomorrow, he attends an open-air mass and meets former Swiss guards -- the elite unit which has protected the pope since the 16th century.
Despite a blanket ban on demonstrations in the capital over the weekend, a group calling itself the anti-Pope League called via a website for a rally against "religious fundamentalism".
"We have no fears, but there are risks which we have to take into account -- anything ranging from a crazy individual or a mass panic to an organised attack," Daniel Blumer, Berne police chief, told a news conference.