Pope to celebrate first Easter vigil

Pope Francis is to celebrate his first Easter vigil Saturday after praying for peace in a Middle East "torn apart by injustice and conflicts" during Good Friday's ceremonies.

The newly elected Argentine pope will preside over a mass at St Peter's Basilica Saturday evening, baptising four adult converts to the Catholic Church during the service -an Albanian, an Italian, a Russian and a US national of Vietnamese origin, according to the Vatican.

The ceremony will mark the end of three days of intensive Easter preparations set to culminate on Sunday when the Vatican's first non-European pope in nearly 1,300 years celebrates Easter mass in front of tens of thousands of pilgrims in St Peter's Square.

Francis marked Good Friday with a traditional torch-lit ceremony around the Colosseum in Rome, presiding over the re-enactment of Jesus Christ's last hours and praying for Christians in the Middle East and for "our Muslim brothers".

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the pope had shortened some of the lengthy Easter ceremonies as part of his "desire for simplicity".

The pope, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, was known in Argentina for his humble lifestyle, his outreach in poor neighbourhoods and his strong social advocacy during his homeland's devastating economic crisis.

He began the most sacred season in the Christian calendar on Holy Thursday by washing the feet of 12 young prisoners in an unprecedented new take on an ancient pre-Easter ritual.