VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis returned home to the Vatican on Sunday after more than five weeks in hospital with pneumonia, taking time before leaving to thank wellwishers for their support.

Looking tired and worn, the 88-year-old Catholic leader waved to a crowd outside Rome`s Gemelli hospital from a balcony, the first time he has been seen in public since he was admitted on Feb 14.

`Thank you, everyone, a weak-sounding Francis said into a microphone, seated in a wheelchair, as hundreds of pilgrims chanted his name.

He waved his hands from his lap, doing an occasional thumbs-up sign, and drew laughter when he noted, smiling: `I can see that woman with yellow flowers, well done.` Francis, who had bags under his eyes, was on the balcony for two minutes before being discharged from the hospital immediately afterwards.

The Argentine pontiff left by car wearing a cannula a plastic tube tucked into his nostrils which delivers oxygen an indication of the continued fragility of his health. His doctor said he would need `at least two months` of convalescence at home in Santa Martha guesthouse in the Vatican.

The pope was driven away in a white Fiat 500 L, initially heading to Santa Maria Maggiore, the Rome church where he stops to pray before and after trips, and then back at the Vatican.

Italy`s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who visited the pontiff in hospital, she was `happy` at his return home.

This was the pope`s fourth and longest hospital stay since becoming head of the world`s almost 1.4bn Catholics in 2013 and the most fraught.

Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, suffered `very critical` moments last month, his doctors said, adding that he would need physiotherapy to recover use of his voice.-AFP