Kolkata, July 12 - Marxist patriarch and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu was Sunday admitted to a private hospital here following breathing problem and old age related complications. But the doctors attending to him said his condition is stable.

Basu, 96, was driven in an ambulance to the AMRI hospital near his Salt Lake residence Indira Bhavan a little before noon after he spent a restless night.

'Basu apparently lost consciousness twice in the morning. He has weakness and giddiness. But now he is more stable,' the hospital's medical superintendent Debasish Sharma told IANS.

He has been admitted to the intensive cardiac care unit and a panel of doctors has been formed for his treatment, he said.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader was given oxygen on the way to the hospital but 'now his oxygenation level is satisfactory', Sharma said.

'He is now better,' the veteran leader's son Chandan Basu told reporters.

Basu, who was state chief minister for 23 straight years, has a clot in the brain from a fall at his Salt Lake residence September last year.