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

'Ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been escorted to Square Hospital at Dhanmandi under tight security,' a senior prison official said.

Hasina has been held at a building in Dhaka's sprawling parliament compound since her arrest in July last year on corruption allegations. She is being prosecuted by special courts for extortion and graft charges.

She was treated in hospital last month for eye and ear ailments and high blood pressure.

Authorities said then that Hasina could not be admitted at the hospital for security reasons.

Her party, the Awami League, said at the time that the ex-PM's health condition was critical and demanded her treatment abroad as Hasina was unwilling to undergo treatment in any Bangladesh hospital due to security worries.

Her retired nuclear physicist husband Wazed Meah has appealed to the government to send her on parole to the United States for treatment. But the government has yet to make a decision on that.

Recently seven doctors of her choice examined her in jail and recommended immediate admission to a local hospital.

One recommended her treatment abroad. Otherwise, the ex-prime minister might become deaf, the doctor said.

Hasina's rival former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who ended her five-year term in October 2006, has been detained at another building in the same parliament compound.

A special court will soon start prosecution against her, said the anti-corruption commission appointed by the army-backed interim government.

It took charge in January last year following months of deadly political violence. The interim government has detained more than 170 people including former ministers, political leaders and business people for graft and misuse of power. - Reuters