MADRID -- The Vatican threatened to reconsider Pope John Paul II's trip to Cuba after a bugging device was discovered in late October in a church facility in a provincial city the pope plans to visit, a Spanish newspaper reported Saturday.

Vatican aides found the hidden microphone as they prepared for the pontiff's Jan. 21-25 visit to Cuba, El Pais newspaper said, quoting unidentified Vatican officials. The newspaper did not say where the facility is located. The pope plans to visit four cities in Cuba.

The newspaper said the Vatican's secretary of state protested to the Cuban government and threatened to reconsider the papal visit.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls refused to comment on the report Saturday.

Cuban officials, the paper said, admitted that the microphone may have been in the house but claimed it dated to the time of President Fulgencio Batista, who was overthrown by Fidel Castro in 1959.

Experts who examined the microphone said it was an unsophisticated device but appeared to be in working condition and they did not believe it was nearly 40 years old, El Pais said.

The discovery of the microphone led Castro to agree to a Vatican request to declare Christmas Day a national holiday and both sides then considered the incident closed, the newspaper said.