Pope Francis has begun his tour of the US, where he is expected to greet millions of American Catholics and address thorny issues like climate change and income inequality, the BBC reports.

US President Barack Obama welcomed the pope as he landed on Tuesday – a rare honour for a foreign dignitary.

The pontiff will visit Washington DC, New York and Philadelphia.

Before he departed Cuba on Tuesday, he called on its people to live a “revolution of tenderness”.

In the final Mass of his four-day visit to the island, with President Raul Castro attending, he urged thousands of Cubans to serve one another and not an ideology.