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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has spent the night in hospital after being taken ill with high blood pressure, Brazilian media report. Lula, 64, became ill after boarding a plane in the north-eastern city of Recife to fly to Davos in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. Presidency officials said he had felt "tired and indisposed". Local media say Lula is expected to be discharged later in the day but may still require more medical tests. Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles will travel to Davos to represent Brazil.President Lula had spent Wednesday in Recife, following a busy agenda. The president had complained of a sore throat and a pain in his chest during the day and showed signs of high blood pressure as he was about to depart. Mr Lula's personal doctor, Cleber Ferreira, who advised that he be taken to hospital, said: "I took the president off the plane. He didn't fly on doctors' orders, but right until the last minute he wanted to travel." Mr Lula was due to become the first head of state to receive the World Economic Forum's new Global Statesmanship Award. President Lula is in the final year of his second four-year term - but despite high approval ratings has ruled out standing for a second re-election, which is anyway prohibited under the Brazilian constitution. Following a landslide victory in 2002, he became the first leftist to hold the country's highest office in nearly half a century. The son of an illiterate peasant family, he had worked as a peanut seller and shoe-shine boy, only learning to read when he was 10 years old, before training as a metal worker and becoming a trade union activist. Mr Lula then helped found the Workers Party (PT) in 1980.