Pope Francis arrived in Ulaanbaatar on Friday to start the historic first papal visit to Mongolia.

The 86-year-old pontiff is meeting a Catholic flock of only 1,400 in the Buddhist-majority country.

The pontiff's flight from Rome to the Mongolian capital took nine hours.

A line of Mongolian honor guards in traditional blue, red and yellow attire and foreign minister Batmunkh Battsetseg greeted the wheelchair-bound pope upon his touchdown.

The nine-hour flight passed over Chinese airspace and the pontiff, following custom, sent a telegram to President Xi Jinping, bearing "greetings of good wishes" to him and the Chinese people.

WITH AFP