Sunday, March 27 2005 18:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Vatican City: Though he struggled with all his might, a frail Pope John Paul II failed to voice a traditional Easter Sunday blessing for the first time in his 26-year pontificate, in an appearance at his apartment window overlooking a rain-dampened St Peters Square.

Straining to speak, the pope breathed into a microphone, which was passed to him at his open window, but was unable to pronounce the blessing, eventually being forced to concede to his illness.

Many pilgrims among the thousands in the square for his traditional "Urbi et Orbi" were in tears as they watched an unfolding Vatican drama on Christianity's most important day.

Men and women across the Vatican square wept as they watched in a hushed silence the pope gesture his blessing.

"I am worried. This means he doesn't have much time left," said Maria Carmela of Palermo, Sicily, wiping away tears.

A monk from Brazil said the popes silence was "very eloquent".

It speaks to all those who are suffering. His silence is one of hope," said brother Carlos Nogueira.

The pope, who is recovering from a throat operation and breathes through a tracheotomy tube in his neck, has not participated in any of the Easter Holy Week ceremonies.