Pope calls for Middle East peace during easter message

Pope Francis delivered a plea for peace in his first Easter Sunday message to the world.

He decried seemingly endless conflicts in the Middle East and on the Korean peninsula after celebrating mass along with more than 250,000 people in flower-bedecked St Peter’s Square.

After mass he stepped aboard an open-topped popemobile for a spin through the joyous crowd, kissing babies and patting children on the head.

As Popes before him have, Francis urged Israelis and Palestinians, who “struggle to find the road of agreement”, to find the courage to resume peace talks and end a conflict that “has lasted all too long”.

And, reflecting on the two-year-old Syrian crisis, he asked: “How much suffering must there still be before a political solution can be found?”