Pope John Paul II's condition is steadily improving, the Vatican said on Tuesday, a month after he was first rushed to hospital with breathing problems that almost ended his life. Doctors, however, believe it may be weeks before he can recover his voice. "The pope is doing well, his condition is improving as we said yesterday," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters, as he made his daily visit to the pope's 10th-floor suite at Rome's Gemelli hospital. As he left shortly afterwards, he said John Paul II had been "preparing to celebrate mass" in his hospital room. On Monday, the Vatican announced the 84-year-old pontiff had begun rehabilitation exercises for his breathing and speech, which Navarro-Valls said early Tuesday "are continuing". John Paul II now breathes through a tube inserted in an opening in his neck to guard against the risk of suffocation. The Vatican said he is eating normally, though he is able to communicate only through notes written on a pad. Doctors, meanwhile, believe he will probably need weeks of therapy to recover his speech.

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