The canonisation of Pope John Paul II may be delayed after reports that a French nun has had a relapse of Parkinson's disease, which was believed to have been cured due to the pope's intervention. The Vatican documented Sister Marie Simon-Pierre's recovery from the illness as evidence of a miracle - a requirement for the late Pope John Paul II's elevation to sainthood.

The nun's relapse could now mean that the Vatican will have to find further evidence of a miracle linked to John Paul for his canonisation to advance.

But the Vatican on Thursday rejected the suggestion following a report by Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita that Simon-Pierre had fallen ill with the same paralysing disease that affected the Polish pope.

"The news is without any foundation," a Vatican source said on Thursday, according to the Italian daily, La Repubblica.

But the newspaper said that the Vatican medical commission charged with investigating Simon-Pierre's case has asked a church official involved in the sainthood process to find another miracle.

Simon-Pierre, born in 1961, had reportedly been suffering from the degenerative disease since 2001, but has testified that she was cured in the night of 2 June 2005 after praying to John Paul II, whose final years were also marked by the degenerative disease of the nervous system.

“All I can tell you is that I was sick and now I am cured. It is for the church to say and to recognise whether it is a miracle,” she said during a 2007 news conference in the southern French city of Aix-en-Provence.

John Paul died in April 2005 after more than 26 years as pope.

At his funeral, admirers gathered in St. Peter's Square chanting "santa subito," or "saint now" encouraging his successor Benedict XVI to speed up the process towards canonisation.

Benedict has waived the five-year period normally required between the death and beatification of a candidate for sainthood.

There is speculation that John Paul II will be beatified on the fifth anniversary of his death. Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonisation process and a person who is beatified is given the title "Blessed".

At least two miracles are required under church rules to make someone a saint.

A further miracle related to John Paul was identified when a nine year-old Polish boy paralysed by kidney cancer was able to walk after praying at the pope's tomb in 2006.

Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul's former private secretary, who is now the archbishop of Krakow, has said there are many other miracles attributed to the late pontiff.

Some estimates suggest there are more than 200 miracles linked to John Paul.

AKI