It comes as his 91-year-old wife Barbara was admitted to the same hospital experiencing fatigue and coughing.

The couple’s office said Mrs Bush has been hospitalised “as a precaution”.

Spokesman Jim McGrath said in an email to Reuters that Mr Bush, who at 92 is America’s oldest living ex-president, has “responded very well to treatments” at the Houston Methodist Hospital.

“Doctors and everyone are very pleased, and we hope to have him out soon.”

Mr and Mrs Bush are the parents of former President George W. Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who sought the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

The couple marked their 72nd anniversary on January 6.

Mr Bush was already planning to miss President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday due to health reasons.

“Same for Barbara. So I guess we’re stuck in Texas.”

He said he and his wife, Barbara, would be with Mr Trump in spirit. “I want you to know that I wish you the very best as you begin this incredible journey of leading our great country,” he wrote.

Republican Senator John McCain and the Carter Center, founded by former President Jimmy Carter, posted tweets wishing Mr Bush a quick recovery.

Mr Bush, a Republican like his sons, was vice president during Ronald Reagan’s two White House terms before being elected president in 1988. He lost his re-election bid to Bill Clinton, then the Democratic governor of Arkansas, in 1992.

He has used a wheelchair in his later years and was hospitalized twice in 2014, once for seven weeks with pneumonia and again for breathing difficulties. In July 2015, he broke a bone in his neck in a fall at the family home in Maine.

In December he marked the 75th commemoration of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor by attending a ceremony at his library at Texas A&M University.

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http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/755934/barbara-bush-hospital-george-bush-senior-intensive-care