Former Italian president Giorgio Napolitano has died aged 98 after being treated in a Rome hospital for weeks.

Napolitano served from 2006 to 2015 and was the first person to be elected twice to the seven-year post, but he stepped down in 2015, citing his advancing age.

Having first entered parliament in 1953, Napolitano became a life member of the Italian Senate after his presidency and remained politically active in the years that followed.

Source: Qatar News Agency