Mexico plans to deploy 10,000 police officers for Pope Francis's visit to Mexico City in February, which is expected to draw 2.3 million people to events in and around the country's capital. Officials said they plan to station police along almost the six-mile route that the pope's motorcade will take into the town of Ecatepec, and at the rally and mass he holds there on 14 February.

Mexico state governor Eruviel Avila said late last Wednesday that the city will set up bleachers along the city's main boulevard, and that the Ecatepec, just outside Mexico City, expects some 300,000 people to attend mass that day.

As on his tour along through Washington DC, New York and Philadelphia last year, Pope Francis reportedly intends to meet freely with the masses despite the virtually unprecedented security around him. His visit to the US prompted one of the largest security operations in American history, run jointly by city police, the secret service and the FBI.

"The pope has called for no extraordinary measures," Alberto Suárez Inda, the archbishop of Morelia, told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday. "On the contrary," he added, the pope intends "to be near the people."

"He would not come if he did not have his confidence in God, in the goodness of the people," he said. "We're all mortals, but as far as I know there has been no change in politics to necessitate more protection."

Francis himself has not spoken publicly about security in Mexico, and so far has approached his trip with the gaiety that has won him adoration from religious and non-religious people alike.