Pope Benedict XVI began a week-long tour of Latin America in Mexico on Friday, denouncing the country's drug-fuelled violence.

The pope was greeted by ringing church bells and crowds of cheering supporters at Guanajuanto International Airport in Silao in central Mexico. He walked along a red carpet and was treated to entertainment complete with folkloric dance and mariachis.

"This is a proud country of hospitality and nobody feels like a stranger in your land. I knew that, now I see it and now I feel it in my heart," Benedict said in a speech on the airport's tarmac.

The pope also referred to the daily violence in Mexico that has killed some 50,000 people in five years and devastated everyday Mexicans, saying he was praying for all in need, "particularly those who suffer because of old and new rivalries, resentments and all forms of violence." He also called on Mexicans to abandon "the worship of money" that feeds the drug violence.

"The church... does not compete with other private or public initiatives," Benedict said after greeting President Felipe Calderon. "Nor does she have any aim other than doing good in an unselfish and respectful way to those in need."

Eighty-four percent of Mexicans are baptized Catholic, but the church's numbers in recent years have fallen amid competing religions.

The trip is the pope's first visit to Spanish-speaking Latin America, having only visited Brazil once in 2007. Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, was especially revered in Mexico after having made five trips to the country, earning him the title of "Mexico's pope."

The pope's visit includes a two-day visit to Cuba, where he is expected to urge the island nation's leadership to move on from its Marxist system, which he said ahead of the visit "no longer corresponds to reality."

acb/nt (AFP, AP)