VATICAN CITY, Feb 24: Pope John Paul was rushed to hospital on Thursday for the second time this month after a relapse of flu and renewed breathing problems.

The Vatican said the 84-year-old Pope had returned to Rome's Gemelli hospital for "specialist care and further checks".

It appeared a less reassuring message than during the Pope's earlier hospitalization, when the Vatican said his transfer to the Gemelli was merely a "precautionary measure".

A Church source said the Polish Pontiff had more breathing problems and renewed fever two weeks after doctors had allowed him to return home following a 10-day stay in the Gemelli.

A security guard said the Pope was conscious and resting on a partly raised stretcher when he was wheeled into the Gemelli). A passer-by told Sky Italia television that he had waved to people as he entered the clinic.

Vatican sources said the ailing Pope had hoped to attend a ceremony on Thursday to approve sainthood decrees, which took place in the frescoed Clementia Hall, metres from his private study in the Apostolic Palace.

Cardinals and bishops were gathered in the hall awaiting his arrival, but aides decided that the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, would preside instead, leaving the Pope to watch the event on television in a nearby room.

The Pope penned several words for Cardinal Sodano to read, telling the cardinals he was watching from his apartment. His health then worsened and doctors ordered his immediate transfer by ambulance to the Gemelli hospital, four kilometres from the Vatican. The Vatican said it would issue its next health bulletin on Friday morning.

PRAYERS: Churchmen urged the faithful to pray for the man who has led the 1.1-billion member Church for 26 years and has made personal suffering a byword of the last years of his papacy.

"I call on all the diocese of Rome to gather in prayer for our most loved bishop and the father of the faith," said Camillo Ruini, the Cardinal of Rome. The deterioration of the Pope's health will revive fears throughout the Catholic world that one of the most historic pontificates is nearing an end. -Reuters