HOUSTON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush has been hospitalized since Friday for pneumonia.

A spokesman for the former president's family said on Tuesday that the 92-year-old bush was admitted to the Houston Methodist Hospital on Friday due to a persistent cough that has prevented him from getting proper rest, and it was subsequently diagnosed as a mild pneumonia.

The spokesman said that former president bush is already recovering.

In January, Bush was sent to the Houston Methodist Hospital with an acute respiratory problem.

Bush, who was born in 1924, was the 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993.