The small West African nation of Benin, considered the heartland of voodoo and a stronghold of Catholicism, made final preparations on Thursday before Pope Benedict XVI's second visit to the continent.

Benedict is to arrive in Benin on Friday for a three-day trip that will take him to the economic capital Cotonou as well as to Ouidah, a city heavy with symbolism as a centre of voodoo and which served as a major slave trading port.

Last-minute preparations are well underway, with churches freshly painted, the streets of Cotonou being diligently cleaned and signs in French and local languages erected welcoming the pope.

"The pope is coming to see his children," said Honorine Deboton, who was selling skirts featuring the images of Benedict, his predecessor John Paul II and Benin Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, a revered figure who died in 2008.

The highlight of the pope's trip to a region that has the world's fastest growing number of Catholics will be the formal signing on Saturday of an apostolic exhortation entitled "The Pledge for Africa".

The main message of the exhortation -- "Africae Munus" in the Vatican's official language, Latin -- will be peace, reconciliation and justice.

The document, a summary of the conclusions of the synod of African bishops in 2009, is also expected to refer to the problems of unequal development, corruption, rural poverty and the rise of an alternative Christian movement.

The pope is set to sign the proclamation in West Africa's biggest cathedral in Ouidah, where missionaries arrived 150 years ago.

Some 10,000 pilgrims from West Africa and beyond are expected during the visit, said Father Andre Quenum, spokesman for the organisation committee.

More than a thousand security agents will be mobilised, with the trip culminating with a mass on Sunday at a stadium in Cotonou.

But not everyone was enthusiastic. A number of merchants saw their stalls taken down in an effort to beautify the city.

"Me, I regret the pope's trip," said Haruna Oladeji, a shoe seller who threatened to return to banditry if nothing was done for him. "I was left with nothing."

Benedict is likely to face questions over the Catholic Church's stance on condoms during his visit to the continent, the world's hardest hit by HIV and AIDS.

His first trip to Africa in 2009 to Cameroon and Angola caused a global outcry when he suggested condom distribution aggravated the AIDS problem.

The pope has since seemed to ease that stance, saying in a book published last year that condom use is acceptable "in certain cases," notably to reduce the risk of HIV infection.

Catholics in Africa have long been caught between the church's doctrine and the realities of a killer disease affecting millions of people. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly 70 percent of the world's HIV cases.