Czech President Mr Vaclav Havel was rushed to hospital with heart problems today.
He was forced to cancel an official visit to Italy. Mr Havel, who turns 65 next week, was already on board the plane preparing to depart for Rome when he was taken ill.
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Czech President Mr Vaclav Havel
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He was taken to the Prague-Stresovice military hospital where he was being treated for an irregular heartbeat.
Dr Ilja Kotik, the president's personal physician, said Mr Havel had previously suffered similar problems, "particularly in situations of stress or in the case of viral infections of the respiratory tract due to his chronic bronchitis".
He declined to say how long Havel would remain in hospital but hinted it might be a short stay.
The leading human rights activist, who spent five years in prison for his opposition to former Czechoslovakia's communist regime, had surgery to remove a cancerous growth from his lung in December 1996.
In 1998, he nearly died after suffering a heart attack only days after surgery in hospital in Austria. He has also suffered from a string of viral and respiratory infections related to bronchitis.
AFP