Pope Francis makes first public appearance since hospitalisation

Rome:  Pope Francis greeted and thanked the faithful from a balcony of Rome's Gemelli hospital Sunday, the first time the 88-year-old has been seen in public since his admission on February 14.

"Thank you, everyone", a weak-sounding Francis said into a microphone, as he sat in a wheelchair waving gently to hundreds of people gathered below, and doing the occasional thumbs-up sign.

"I can see that woman with yellow flowers, well done", he said with a small smile, to laughter from the crowd.

The head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, who has spent over five weeks in hospital battling pneumonia, was on the balcony for two minutes then was discharged immediately.

He left by car, waving from the closed window of the front seat as he drove past journalists, and could be seen wearing a cannula - a plastic tube tucked into his nostrils which delivers oxygen.

Francis looked tired and thinner than usual. Doctors have said that his health has improved sufficiently for him to go home, but that he still faces a long recovery of at least two months.