Rome: Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni visited Pope Francis for 20 minutes in the hospital on Wednesday and reported he was "alert and responsive" and full of good humour, despite his diagnosis of pneumonia and a complicated bronchial infection that has sidelined the 88-year-old pontiff for six days.

Pope Francis was in jovial mood when Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni popped in to visit him in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital where he is fighting off pneumonia in both lungs, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported on Thursday.