VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis left Rome for a nine-day pastoral visit to Cuba and the United States Saturday on his longest trip yet as pontiff. During his voyage the Argentinian pope is expected to meet Cuban President Raul Castro as well as Fidel Castro and call for an end to the US embargo on Havana as well as make an appeal for better treatment for dissidents by the Cuban Communist Party.

 The special papal jetliner left Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport at 10:35 am and was due to arrive in Havana at 4 pm local time. President Castro was due to meet the 78-year-old pontiff at the Josè Martì international airport where both men were to make speeches. 

 On Sunday Francis' official programme starts with a Mass to be celebrated in the vast Plaza de la Revolucion square.

 The visit to Cuba climaxes Francis' major personal triumph in engineering behind the scenes a rapprochement and restoration of diplomatic relations between Washington and Cuba, a role that Raul Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama praised in a telephone conversation recently, the White House disclosed.

 On Tuesday Francis will travel to the United States where he will meet President Obama and address both Congress and the United Nations as well as stopping at Philadelphia to celebrate a major mass during which his homily, like all his utternaces during the trip, will be closely watched for signs of changes in policy on the role of women in the Church and subjects such as priestly celibacy, homosexuality, birth control and the ban on divorced Catholics taking communion at mass.  

  The Vatican's white and yellow flag will for the first time be hoisted over the UN headquarters in New York Sept. 25, the morning after the pontiff arrives in the city, following a decision by the UN assembly general last week to allow countries with observer status such as the Vatican and Palestine to fly their flags at the UN.