Pope John Paul II recovers to complete gruelling schedule

Pope John Paul II has defiantly answered concerns over his health.

During a service at the Armenian church's main cathedral in Echmiadzin, the pope's hand trembled strongly and aides rushed to his side to offer comfort halfway through his speech.

But John Paul appeared to recovered well later in the day, at one point even waving his cane in the air.

The three-day trip to Armenia, following four days in Kazakstan, is putting the 81-year-old pope's health to the test though.

Today he will pay a solemn visit to one of Armenia's most emotionally intense sites, the memorial to people who died under the Ottoman Empire.

It commemorates 1.5 million people who Armenia says were victims of genocide in a 1915-23 campaign to force them out of eastern Turkey.

Later the pontiff will go to the new St Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in downtown Yerevan - a site symbolizing Armenians' hopes for recovery from the economic suffering of their first decade of post-Soviet independence.