Final touches ahead of first-ever Papal visit to Iraq

Authorities in Iraq are putting the finishing touches to their preparations for the Pope's first-ever visit to the country.

He's due to arrive on Friday for a four-day tour that will focus on the difficulties faced by Iraq's hard-pressed Christian community.

Among the places on his itinerary is Qaraqosh, on the Nineveh Plains, where this week Vatican and Iraqi flags fluttered from light poles, some adorned with the Pope’s image.

Officials have smartened up the roads, improved the street lights, and set up crowd-control barriers.

Volunteers have been cleaning the town's al-Tahira church.

The priest in charge of the church said he hoped the visit would bring "positive outcomes" to the community.

Qaraqosh, also known as Baghdeda or Hamdaniya, is in the historical heartland of Iraqi Christianity.

Christian communities in the area were devastated by attacks from the Islamic State group in 2014, an onslaught that reduced still further a Christian population that had already been dwindling.

Many Christians who fled the advance of the Islamic State group have either stayed in Iraq’s Kurdistan region or started new lives abroad.

It's estimated that fewer than half of the Christians who fled have returned.