Pope Francis has said he is not afraid of being assassinated, but he is a "big coward" when it comes to pain.

Francis was answering a series of questions posed by young people for La Carcova newspaper, produced in a shanty town community in Buenos Aires, Argentina and reported by the Catholic News Agency.

Asked whether he was afraid in the face of threats against his life, he said: "Look, life is in God's hands. I told the Lord: 'You are taking care of me. But if your will is that I die or that they do something to me, I ask you only one favour: that it doesn't hurt. Because I'm a big coward when it comes to physical pain."

He also spoke about drug trafficking, hope and politics, and signalled the possibility of a trip to his native country in 2016.

Asked about the drug trade, he said: "It is true, it is advancing and has not stopped. There are counties that are slaves of drugs and that worries us. What worries me more is the triumph of drug traffickers. These people claim victory, have won, have triumphed. That is the reality. There are countries and areas where everything is under the control of drug cartels."

He said that the most important thing parents could give to their children was "Belonging, belonging to a home. Belonging is given through love, with care, with time, in hand, listening to them, playing with them, giving them what they need in every moment for their growth. Overall, giving them a place to express themselves. If you do not play with your children, you are keeping them from experiencing gratefulness. If you do not give them a place for them to say what they feel and can even argue with you, because they feel free, you are not allowing them to grow."

However, he added: "But the most important thing is faith. It hurts me a lot when I meet children that do not know how to make the sign of the cross. These children have not received the most important thing a father and mother can give them: the faith."

In response to a suggestion that his life had been "intense and full", he admitted: "Well, I lived a lot of pointlessness. It was not so intense and full. I am just another sinner. What happens is that the Lord made me do things that are seen, but how many times are there people that are not seen. And the good that they do! The intensity is not directly proportional to what people see."

Asked about the Argentine elections this year, he urged the need for clear electoral platforms in which goals were clearly stated, and for honesty. He also called for public funding of election campaigns rather than the present system in which funds are raised by parties and candidates. "Because in the financing of campaigns, many interests enter and the bill must be paid later on. So, one has to be independent of whoever could finance the campaign. It is an ideal, of course, because there is always a lack of money for posters, for television, but the financing could at least be public money."