Bangladesh's ex-PM Hasina admitted to hospital

Detained former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been taken to a hospital in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka for treatment, officials said on Thursday.

"The former prime minister has been taken to Square Hospital at Dhanmandi under tight security," a senior prison official said.

Hasina has for weeks refused to undergo treatment for high blood pressure and ear and eye problems in any Bangladesh hospital due to security worries, with her party officials and lawyers saying she feared for her life.

She had requested treatment abroad, preferably in the United States, where her son and daughter live and where she has been treated in the past, but the authorities said under emergency rules and prison codes such travel was not permitted.

But this week Hasina, who was prime minister from 1996 to 2001, agreed to treatment at a Dhaka hospital of her choosing.

Hasina has been held at a building in Dhaka's sprawling parliament compound since her arrest in July last year on corruption allegations.

A court on Tuesday adjourned a hearing against her until February 26 after her defence said "the former prime minister is sick with high blood pressure, ear and eye ailments".