SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia -- Outgoing President Hugo Banzer received a warm welcome here Saturday, as he returned home from a month of cancer treatment in the United States ahead of his resignation on August 6.

Banzer, who was diagnosed with lung and liver cancer during treatment for back problems in the Washington in July, will make his resignation speech Monday from sucre, where the nation's Parliament is located.

His Vice President, Jorge Quiroga, a 41-year-old U.S.-educated engineer, will take over from Banzer Tuesday for the remainder of the presidential term, which ends in August 2002.

The 75-year-old former general, who received chemotherapy treatment in Washington, appeared weak and drawn, and walked with the aid of a cane, AFP reported.

He and his wife were greeted by Quiroga and a military guard as they deplaned from a U.S. Air Force jet which touched down in Santa Cruz, 900 kilometers (560 miles) East of La Paz, at around 6:00 p.m. (2200 GMT).

At an emotional ceremony at the airport's VIP suite, Quiroga, who had been left in charge during Banzer's absence, symbolically returned the nation's scepter, and control of Bolivia, to Banzer.

He was then driven to his residence in an exclusive suburb of Santa Cruz. Thousands of people lined the 17-kilometer (ten mile) route, waving signs and applauding the ailing president.

"General, the people salute you from the heart," read thousands of notices posted in Santa Cruz streets. "General, the people welcome you with love."

Outside his home, Banzer told the crowds that the chemotherapy treatments he received in Washington had contained his cancer.

"I feel good, very good," Banzer said, amid repeated ovations. "the best vitamin is coming home and being with you."

He joked that he had been ordered by the U.S. doctor traveling with him, Colonel Ken Block, not to exert himself, or be barred from traveling to Sucre for his resignation Monday.

"It is the first time that a colonel gives orders to a general," he said.

He thanked his supporters, asked them to support Quiroga and to continue "the fight against poverty."

On Sunday, Banzer is due to head a cabinet meeting and meet with political allies and church leaders.

Aides say he will deliver a 10-minute accounting of his two governments at the opening session of the 2001-2002 Congress on Monday, Bolivia's National Day, before resigning. Quiroga is expected to take the reins of power Tuesday.

Banzer returns to Washington on August 8 for his next round of chemotherapy treatment.

The retired general is one of the few former Latin American dictators who managed to recycle himself as head of a democratic government.

He first came to power in the bloody military coup of 1971 and headed a regime in which thousands of political opponents went into exile and at least 200 were killed.

In 1978 he stepped aside, founded a political party, the national democratic action, and ran unsuccessfully for the presidency. He was finally elected in 1997.

A predominant theme of his presidency was the U.S.-backed dignity plan to eradicate coca production, under which more than 38,000 hectares (93,000 acres) of coca crops destined for illegal drug-trafficking have been destroyed since 1998.

But coca growers have a waged a fierce campaign to stop the eradication of crops they say supply their livelihood.

A series of tough protests by growers -- including crippling road blocks and clashes with security forces that killed 20 demonstrators -- briefly saw Banzer on the verge of backing down from the program earlier this year.

The land-locked Andean country shares with others in the region problems of high unemployment and underemployment, an unstable currency, and the political legacy of years of authoritarian rule.