US: SENATOR EDWARD Kennedy will remain in hospital for several days as doctors investigate the cause of a seizure that saw him rushed to hospital in Boston on Saturday.
His physician, Larry Ronan, said the 76-year-old senator was not "in any immediate danger" and was well enough to watch a baseball game on television and eat takeaway food within hours of the incident.
"Over the next couple of days, Senator Kennedy will undergo further evaluation to determine the cause of the seizure, and a course of treatment will be determined at that time," Dr Ronan said.
Mr Kennedy was airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital on Saturday morning after being taken by ambulance to a local hospital near his family's Hyannisport holiday home.
Amid initial reports that Mr Kennedy had suffered a stroke, his wife and family joined him at the hospital and leading politicians issued statements wishing him well and paying tribute to his life in politics. The hospital said later, however, that he had not suffered a stroke but a seizure.
Last October, Mr Kennedy had surgery to remove a blockage in his left carotid artery, a procedure aimed at preventing a stroke.
Elected in 1962 to the seat vacated when his brother, John F Kennedy, became president a year earlier, Mr Kennedy is the second-longest serving member of the Senate. He is one of the most active and skilful legislators in Congress, taking the lead on issues such as health care and immigration reform.
As the leading Irish-American political figure in Washington, Mr Kennedy has been central to every major US initiative on the North for decades and former taoiseach Bertie Ahern singled him out for praise during his address to Congress last month.
Fellow Massachusetts senator John Kerry was among the first to visit Mr Kennedy on Saturday.
"Ted Kennedy is beloved and respected on both sides of the aisle in the Senate in which he's been a giant for close to half a century, a legend in Massachusetts," Mr Kerry said. "We know that everyone in Massachusetts and people throughout the nation pray for a full and speedy recovery for a man whose life's work has touched millions upon millions of lives."
Mr Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama earlier this year and has campaigned for the Illinois senator throughout the country.
"Ted Kennedy is a giant in American political history - he has done more for the health care of others than just about anybody in history and so we are going to be rooting for him and I insist on being optimistic about how it's going to turn out," Mr Obama said.
Hillary Clinton, campaigning in Kentucky over the weekend, described Mr Kennedy as a great champion for working people.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family, because he has been a champion for health care. Nobody has fought harder to make sure everybody got good health care. And I know that we all join together in wishing him well," she said.