Pope delivers medical aid during visit| to remote Papua New Guinea town

Papua New Guinea - Pope Francis flew deep into the jungle of the south-western Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea on Sept 8 to visit Catholics living in one of the most remote areas of the world and deliver medical supplies and other aid.

Travelling 1,000km in a C-130 cargo aircraft provided by the Royal Australian Air Force, he arrived with a small entourage in Vanimo, a township of some 12,000 people in the north-western corner of the country's main island, with no running water and scarce electricity.

The 87-year-old Pope brought hundreds of kilograms of items to help support the local population, said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni. These included medicine and clothing, as well as toys and musical instruments for schoolchildren.

Pope Francis is visiting the nation of 600 islands as part of his ambitious 12-day, four-country tour of South-east Asia and Oceania, the longest of his 11-year-old рарасу.

He came to Vanimo at the invitation of local missionaries with the Catholic Institute of the Incarnate Word. They, like Pope Francis, the first pontiff from the Americas, are from Argentina.

"You are doing something beautiful, and it is important that you are not left alone," Pope Francis told the crowd - which the Vatican estimated at 20,000 - of missionaries and Catholic faithful in a meeting outside the town's onestorey, wood-panelled cathedral parish.

"You live in a magnificent land, enriched by a great variety of plants and birds," said the Pope.