VATICAN CITY - John Paul II had difficulty breathing as he battled the flu and will spend a few more days in the hospital, but his heart was functioning normally and the pope had a restful night, the Vatican said today.

The 84-year-old pontiff had "just a little fever," papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in elaborating on a terse medical bulletin issued by the Holy See. He told Vatican radio the pope would spend "a few more days" in the hospital, but added that there was "no cause for alarm."

John Paul was being treated today for respiratory problems in the Gemelli Polyclinic. He was rushed there late Tuesday from his Vatican apartment after coming down with influenza, Vatican officials said.

"The cardio-respiratory and metabolic levels at present are within the norm," the bulletin said.

Prayers for the pope were being said by faithful in churches around Rome, as well as in his native Poland.

"After we got the news we added a special prayer during our morning Mass," said Bishop Szczepan Wesoly, who presided at the service at the Polish church near Piazza Venezia in the center of the city attended by Polish nuns in black habits.

The papal spokesman said John Paul was taken by ambulance to the hospital after doctors decided "he could be better treated there than here (the Vatican)." In response to a reporter's question, Navarro-Valls denied that the pope lost consciousness, saying: "No, for God's sake!," and he ruled out any need for a tracheotomy.

Navarro-Valls said that as he was leaving the hospital today, the pope's secretary was celebrating Mass in the hospital room and that John Paul was concelebrating from his bed. Navarro-Valls said he didn't know whether the pope had eaten any breakfast.

He characterized Tuesday night's hurried admission to a special papal suite on the 10th floor of the hospital as "mainly precautionary" for the pope, who also suffers from Parkinson's disease. Trying to appear reassuring, Navarro-Valls even joked at one point that John Paul was taken by ambulance to the hospital because "the subway doesn't go that far."

John Paul was first examined in the emergency room before being taken to his hospital suite, Italian TV and news agency reports said.

Navarro-Valls, who has a medical degree, told The Associated Press early today that the pope has the flu and acute laryngeal tracheitis - inflammation of the windpipe - and had a "certain difficulty in breathing." He denied Italian news reports that John Paul had a CAT scan at the hospital or that he was taken to intensive care.

The first sign of the frail pope's illness came on Sunday, when he kept clearing his throat during a 20-minute appearance at his studio window, thrown wide open on one of Rome's most bone-chilling days in years so he could release a pair of doves symbolizing peace into St. Peter's Square.