Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said the pope's overall heart and breathing conditions had not changed and remained "very serious."

In an indication of his worsening health, a mass was celebrated during the morning in the pope's presence, but significantly he did not take an active role in the ceremony as he had the day before.

Navarro-Valls said the pope's overall condition remained "very serious."

"The general, cardio-respiratory and metabolic conditions of the Holy Father are substantially unchanged and therefore are very serious," he said.

As of dawn Saturday, the pope appeared to be moving in and out of consciousness, he said.

Navarro-Valls said in answer to questions that "we noticed a reduction in his consciousness. That absolutely does not mean, technically, that he is in a state of coma.

"When spoken to, he opens his eyes and remains conscious. At times it seems he is sleeping or that he is resting his eyes."

He said a new medical bulletin would be issued by 6:00 pm (1600 GMT).

Hundreds of pilgrims who had kept up a traditional all-night vigil for the dying pope stayed in St Peter's Square, overlooked by the apartment of the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.

The pope "gave signs of recognising people," an Italian cardinal, Achille Silvestrini, said after visiting the pope Saturday morning.

"I saw him very relaxed," he said, adding he had prayed beside the pope and kissed his hand.

In the last communique, issued shortly before 7:00 pm Friday, Navarro-Valls said the pontiff's condition was worsening, his breathing had become shallow and his blood pressure was falling.

"The pope has an extraordinary physique and at the moment even his doctors are surprised" at his will to live, said Corrado Manni, an anaesthetist who has been present at several of the pope's 10 surgical operations.

"I believed that, given the conditions described in the medical bulletin, yesterday he was nearly finished, but he's still not.

"That's surprised everyone a little, even me who has known him well for so long," the doctor said.

The pope was lying under white blankets in the centre of his room, propped up by pillows, according to Cardinal Mario Francesco Pompedda who went to see him on Friday.

"I was captured by the beauty of this smiling look. He clearly wanted me to understand that he recognised me," Pompedda told the daily La Repubblica.

For many newspapers, however, the pontiff was already spoken of in the past tense. The Turin daily La Stampa published a full obituary on its front page, entitled "John Paul II 1978-2005."

Others were more restrained. La Repubblica headlined "the last hours of the pope" while the Corriere della Sera led with "An embrace for a dying pope" as it recounted what it called the pope's "day of agony".

The pontiff, who has Parkinson's disease, severe lung and throat problems and has long been confined to a wheelchair, suddenly took a sharp turn for the worse late Thursday, when he was given the last rites.

The crowd in St Peter's Square swelled to nearly 70,000 at one point late Friday after reciting a series of prayers, but as the hours passed the numbers dwindled to several hundred gazing up at the pope's windows.

Across the world, from his native Poland to Indonesia, from the Americas to the Middle East, millions of others also prayed for a pontiff who has led the Roman Catholic Church for more than a quarter of a century.

Born Karol Wojtyla in a small town near Krakow, southern Poland, he is the first non-Italian pope in more than four centuries and the 263rd successor to Saint Peter -- one of the disciples of Jesus -- as Bishop of Rome.

Elected pontiff in 1978 at the age of 58, he revolutionised the papacy and contributed to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.

However he also alienated many Catholics with his conservative social views, especially dealing with sex in a world struggling with Aids.

In the Philippines, a bastion of Roman Catholicism in Asia, Church leaders held prayer vigils for a pope who President Gloria Arroyo said was "a lasting source of strength in a troubled world."

In Poland, too, the press prepared for the death of their countryman. "The pope is in his death throes," the Gazeta Wybrocza said.