Vatican -- The Vatican said it believes Pope John Paul II would be back at the Vatican to take part in Church celebrations marking the Holy Week of Easter, but gave no precise date for his discharge from hospital.
"We think that he will be at the Vatican for Holy Week (at the end of March)," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters after giving the latest health update on the 84-year-old pontiff's condition.
Doctors had warned the pope to limit the use of his voice to help him recuperate better after his recent throat operation, Navarro-Valls said Monday.
"Doctors have precribed a prudent limitation in the pope's use of his voice so as to promote a better recuperation of the function of the larynx," the spokesman said.
However, he said no complications had arisen because of the tracheotomy which doctors performed on the pope to ease acute breathing problems when he was hospitalised for the second time in a month on February 24.
"The general conditions of the Holy Father continue to improve, which allows the pope to spend long periods of the day in an armchair".
"Continual improvement can also be seen in speaking, thanks to the daily rehabilitation sessions," for his breathing and voice, Navarro-Valls said.
The spokesman said the next health update on the pope's condition would be issued on Thursday.
The pope, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, was last seen in public on Sunday when he made his latest brief appearance at the window of his suite at Rome's Gemelli hospital.
He appeared to be in reasonably good form as he waved to pilgrims and made the sign of the cross, but in a sign that he was taking his doctors' advice, he did not attempt to speak.
Easter Holy Week ceremonies -- when Christians mark the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ -- have long been seen by Vatican insiders as an important landmark in the pope's recuperation.
The ceremonies, which are the most gruelling in the Church calendar, would pose the first major test of the pope's state of health, after his recent double-hospitalisation.
Apart from the lengthy ceremonies, which have noticeably sapped the energy of a body that has increasingly succumbed to the ravages of Parkinson's disease, Easter is also the occasion for John Paul II's traditional "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message from his balcony.