'Positive' progress for Pavarotti

The Italian tenor has been dogged by ill health in recent years

Doctors treating Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti in hospital are "very positive", the singer's wife says.

"He is calm, he is talking and joking. The doctors are very positive," Nicoletta Mantovani said.

Pavarotti, 71, is staying at a hospital in his hometown of Modena in Italy after being admitted with a fever.

Pavarotti's spokesman said the star could "be released in the next few days". He underwent surgery to remove a pancreatic tumour in July last year.

Ill health

A spokesman for the Modena University Policlinico in northern Italy said Pavarotti's condition was "satisfactory", adding that he was expected to be discharged in the next few days.

The world-famous tenor was admitted to hospital on Wednesday, according to a hospital spokesman - although earlier reports suggested he had been admitted on Tuesday.

Pavarotti's wife spoke to reporters outside the hospital

A local newspaper reported that Pavarotti was diagnosed with pneumonia while on holiday with his family at a resort on the Adriatic seaside.

Other local media reports said he had a respiratory infection complicated by kidney problems.

In recent years the star has been plagued with bad health.

In March 2005, he had neck surgery to repair two vertebrae, while a bout of laryngitis forced him to cancel an appearance at a Three Tenors concert in Mexico in June last year.

He also had back surgery and contracted an infection while in hospital, which forced him to cancel further concert dates.

'Like a lion'

However, Mantovani - his second wife and former assistant, whom he married in 2003 - told Italian newspaper La Stampa last month that he was "fighting like a lion".

"He has never lost his heart, also because a family he adores is by his side," said Mantovani.

In June, Pavarotti's London-based manager Terri Robson said the singer was busy recording a new album, adding that the collection of classical religious music would be released early next year.

Since making his debut in Italy in 1961, Pavarotti has become one of the world's most widely-recognised opera performers.