Former Israeli president and elder statesman Shimon Peres died in Tel Aviv on Wednesday aged 93, Israel Radio said.

Peres was hospitalised following a stroke two weeks ago and had made some progress before a sudden deterioration in his condition on Tuesday.

An official announcement of the death of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former prime minister was expected at around 7 a.m. local time (04:00 GMT). Details of the timing of the funeral were also expected.

Peres was part of almost every major development in Israel since the country's founding in 1948. In a career spanning nearly 70 years, he served in a dozen cabinets and was twice a Labour prime minister.

He shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with the late former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for reaching an interim peace deal in 1993.

Earlier in September, after a series of health scares including a mild heart attack, Peres received an artificial pacemaker. -  Reuters