DHAKA: Pope Francis has begun his tour of the US, where he is expected to greet millions of American Catholics and address thorny issues like climate change and income inequality.

US President Barack Obama welcomed the pope as he landed on Tuesday - a rare honor for a foreign dignitary, reports the BBC.

The pontiff will visit Washington DC, New York and Philadelphia.

Before he departed Cuba on Tuesday, he called on its people to live a ‘revolution of tenderness’.

In the final Mass of his four-day visit to the island, with President Raul Castro attending, he urged thousands of Cubans to serve one another and not an ideology.

On the trip from Cuba to the US, the Pope held a news conference and answered those who said his criticisms of capitalism went too far.

‘I’ve never said anything that is not in the social doctrine of the church,’ the Pope told reporters. ‘Maybe I have given the impression of (being) a bit lefty, but that would be a mistaken interpretation.’

When he landed at Andrews Air Force Base, the Pope was greeted by Obama and his family along with Vice-President Joe Biden and his wife.

The crowd, which included a military honor guard, schoolchildren, politicians, and Roman Catholic clergymen, chanted: ‘Welcome to the USA! Hello! Hey!’

After a brief chat with Obama, the pope rode away in a small charcoal-gray Fiat as part of a motorcade bound for the Vatican diplomatic mission in Washington.

BDST: 1541 HRS, SEPT 23, 2015
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