(Reuters) - Manuel Noriega, Panama's drug-running military dictator of the 1980s, was taken from prison to a Panama City hospital after suffering a possible stroke, the national police said on Sunday.

Noriega, 77, was moved from the El Renacer prison to the Hospital Santo Tomas because of high blood pressure and a possible stroke, police said in a statement.

Noriega was extradited back to Panama in December and he is serving a 20-year sentence for the murders of opponents during his rule.

He has spent the past two decades in prison - first in the United States and then France - for drug trafficking and money laundering. Noriega was ousted from power in 1989 by an invading U.S. force.

(Reporting By Sean Mattson; Editing by Bill Trott)