THE Pope appeared in front of tens of thousands of pilgrims and tourists yesterday to deliver an Easter blessing but, in a dramatic moment that brought tears to the eyes of many people, he failed in his attempt to speak.

The 84-year-old pontiff managed to bless the crowd only with the sign of the Cross from a Vatican window overlooking St Peter's Square.

After failing to speak, he patted the arms of his chair in an apparent sign of disappointment and frustration.

It is the first time John Paul II has not presided over the Easter Sunday service since he became leader of the Catholic Church 26 years ago.

He last spoke in public on March 13, shortly before being discharged from the hospital where he underwent surgery for breathing difficulties. Surgeons had inserted a tube in his throat.

The highly emotional scene yesterday was broadcast live to 74 countries.

After Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, read the pontiff 's Urbi et Orbi message, a priest said the Pope would give the crowd a special blessing. But all he could do was move his hand.

On February 24, surgeons inserted the tube in his throat, and since then, the pontiff has uttered only a few words in public.

In his Easter message read by Cardinal Sodano, he said people were hungering for "truth, freedom, justice and peace".

The Pope also asked God to give "to us the strength to show generous solidarity toward the multitudes who are even today suffering and dying from poverty and hunger, decimated by fatal epidemics or devastated by immense natural disasters".