Leaders of the Roman Catholic church in the American city of Miami are pressing ahead with plans to organise a pilgrimage to Cuba when the Pope visits the island in three weeks' time. Under pressure from the powerful Cuban exile community in the United States, the church cancelled ambitious plans to send a thousand pilgrims to Cuba by cruise liner. Now, however, they have announced they will charter an airliner. Exiles who opposed the cruise boat idea say they have no objection to the scaled down plans - though they still will not take part. Andrew Bolton reports from Miami.

It is less than a month since the church announced it was dropping plans to send a shipful of pilgrims from Miami to Cuba for the Pope's visit. The idea had caused a deep split in the Cuban exile community, most of whom strongly oppose links with Cuba while President Fidel Castro is still in power.

Opponents of the cruise objected in particular to what they saw as its aura of luxury at a time when Cuba is in the grip of an economic crisis. The Miami archbishop, John Favalora, has now announced that he's organising a day-trip to Cuba instead.

More than 150 pilgrims are expected to pay $250 each and will spend about nine hours on the island. The highlight of their stay will be the Pope's outdoor mass in Revolution Square in Havana, which tens of thousands of people are expected to attend.

The United States authorities impose tight restrictions on travel between the US and Cuba, but have already granted special permission for the plane carrying the pilgrims to fly directly between Miami and Havana - a journey of barely half an hour.

Cuba is the only Spanish-speaking country in Latin America that the Pope has not visited, and his trip marks an important step in the steadily improving relations between the government and the church.