AP:

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI arrived Tuesday in the United States to a presidential handshake and enthusiastic cheering, a warm welcome that followed the pontiff's candid admission hours earlier that he is "deeply ashamed" of the clergy sex abuse scandal that has rocked the American church.

On his first papal trip to the U.S., Benedict gave hundreds of spectators a two-handed wave as he stepped off a special Alitalia airliner that brought him from Rome. Students from a local Catholic school screamed ecstatically when the saw the pontiff, who shook hands with President Bush, first lady Laura Bush and their daughter, Jenna on the tarmac.

The pope and the president left in a motorcade a few minutes later.

On the flight to the United States from Rome, Benedict addressed the most painful issue for the Roman Catholic Church in America - clergy sex abuse. The U.S. church has paid out $2 billion in abuse costs since 1950, most of that in just the last six years.