The Pope is in a stable condition in a Rome hospital today after being admitted last night for breathing difficulties and "acute inflammation of the respiratory tract".

Joaquín Navarro-Valls, the Papal spokesman, said "the situation is calm" after spending about an hour at Gemelli hospital, where the 84-year-old pontiff spent a "quiet night".

Tests today have revealed that his heart and breathing indicators were "within normal limits", the Vatican said. He will stay in hospital for another few days as a precaution.

Mr Navarro-Valls said the Pope never lost consciousness. He still had a slight fever, but was well enough this morning to participate in a mass from his hospital bed. He denied claims that John Paul II had a CAT scan at the hospital or was taken to intensive care.

The episode began on Monday when the Pope began to suffer symptoms of flu. His regular weekly audience was cancelled yesterday, along with all other appointments.

The Vatican had insisted that the pontiff was suffering from a mild form of the flu that has struck many residents of Rome this winter.

Later, however, another Vatican official spoke of a "breathing crisis" and a statement issued after midnight conceded that the pontiff had been taken to the Gemelli hospital for urgent treatment.

"The flu which has been affecting the Holy Father for three days was complicated with acute inflammation of the larynx and laryngo-spasm," Mr Navarro-Valls said. Laryngospasm is a closure of the larynx blocking the passage of air to the lungs.

Medical experts said the condition was very rarely fatal, but warned that the Pope's age and medical history complicated matters. Gerald Berke, chief of head and neck surgery at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Centre, said: "He has other medical problems and anything that perturbs his respiratory system is probably a serious event."

The Gemelli hospital, part of the Catholic University of Rome, is where pontiffs are usually given medical treatment. The Polish pontiff has been treated at least six times in the Gemelli during his 26-year papacy, and has his own suite on the 10th floor of the hospital on the outskirts of Rome.

Last Sunday, the Pope appeared as normal at his window above St Peter’s Square and appeared to be in good form as, with Roman schoolchildren, he released doves to symbolise peace.

He laughed as one flew back through the window into his study, holding up his arm in self-defence as the bird flew past. The Vatican said, however, that he had developed flu symptoms later that day.

The Pope, who will be 85 in May, has suffered from Parkinson’s disease, allegedly for more than a decade. He is planning a number of foreign trips this year despite his age and illness, including one to Northern Ireland. His memoirs, Memory and Identity — seen as his last testament — will be published in English in the spring and include an account of the 1981 assassination attempt.

The Pope is also said to be planning a final visit to his native Poland in the summer, although Vatican officials have said that this may be unlikely. The pontiff last visited Poland three years ago.

It is an open secret in Rome that the Vatican is being run by a handful of key figures in the pontiff’s inner circle. They are:

• Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pope’s long-serving German-born ideological enforcer;
• Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Piedmont-born Secretary of State, or Vatican Prime Minister;
• Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Pope’s faithful Polish secretary, who wields personal power far beyond his formal position;
• Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, of Argentina, Cardinal Sodano’s powerful deputy;
• Cardinal Julian Herranz Casado, head of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, the Vatican’s chief lawyer and a member of the increasingly influential Opus Dei organisation.

Jostling for position in the next conclave to choose a new Pope has intensified during the Pope’s decline, with cardinals divided over whether to choose a Pope from the Third World or revert to type and elect an Italian pontiff.

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