Elder Bush hospitalized with mild pneumonia: spokesman

Former US president George H.W. Bush, patriarch of a dynastic political family, is in a hospital recovering from a mild case of pneumonia, his office said Tuesday.

The 41st president, age 92, "was admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital on Friday for observation due to a persistent cough that prevented him from getting proper rest," the office said in a statement released by Bush spokesman Jim McGrath.

Doctors later determined Bush had a mild case of pneumonia, "which was treated and has been resolved," the statement said.

"President Bush is in very good spirits and is being held for further observation while he regains his strength."

Bush, who suffers from Parkinson's disease which has left him in a wheelchair, spent two weeks in January in the same hospital where he was treated for bacterial pneumonia.

Bush served as US commander-in-chief from 1989 to 1993, and is the oldest of the five living former US presidents.

He is father to former president George W. Bush (2001-2009) and former Florida governor Jeb Bush, who was a contender in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.