Pope Francishas shown a "slight improvement", is alert and got out of bed to eat breakfast on Thursday, the Vatican said, as the pontiff spent his seventh day in hospital battling pneumonia.

If you really want him to rest, you have to hospitalize him,” quipped Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, the archbishop of Marseille, France, referring to Francis' work ethic.

In his early 20s, Pope Francis underwent surgery to remove a part of his lung affected by a severe respiratory infection.