Former US president George HW Bush has been taken to a Texas hospital after experiencing a shortness of breath.

Spokesman Jim McGrath said in statement that Mr Bush was taken by ambulance to Houston Methodist Hospital as a precaution.

He said that 90-year-old Mr Bush "will be held for observation, again as a precaution".

Mr Bush spent nearly two months in the same hospital and was discharged in January 2013 after treatment for a bronchitis-related cough and other health issues.

Mr Bush, who can no longer use his legs, most recently appeared seated in a wheelchair at an event in November at Texas A&M University with his son, former President George W Bush.

In June, the elder Bush celebrated his 90th birthday by making a tandem parachute jump near his summer home in Maine.