South African anti-apartheid campaigner and veteran cleric Desmond Tutu has been admitted to hospital due to "inflammation", his daughter said, the second time in a month the 83-year-old has needed medical treatment.

Tutu was released from hospital earlier this month after being treated for a recurring infection related to the prostate cancer he has been fighting for 18 years.

"Doctors treating inflammation, it's not recurrence of his previous illness," Reverend Canon Mpho Tutu was quoted as saying on the Tutu Legacy Foundation's Twitter account.

"Series of treatments have had an impact on elasticity of his body and his ability to come back from an illness."

Tutu, a Nobel peace laureate, retired from public life in 2010 but has kept speaking out in a wide range of issues, including corruption among South Africa's political elite.

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