Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been taken to hospital with a heart problem, according to a spokeswoman for his party, the BBC reports.

The 79-year-old’s condition was “nothing to worry about”, she added.

A statement by the San Raffaele hospital in Milan said the hospitalisation was necessary after what it called a “cardiac deficiency”.

Mr Berlusconi was Italy’s prime minister four times, but has since been convicted for tax fraud and bribery.

The leader of Forza Italia, who had a pacemaker implanted in a hospital in the US when he was 70, would undergo tests “in the next few days”, the hospital statement said.