DHAKA, April 26 (Reuters) - Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been in detention since last year, was released from hospital in Dhaka on Saturday after a week of treatment for fluctuating blood pressure, officials said.

"The former prime minister has been shifted back to a special prison after she had been released from the Square Hospital," a senior prison official told reporters.

She was admitted to hospital last Saturday after her blood pressure became unstable.

Hasina, 60, has been held in a building inside the sprawling parliament compound since her arrest last July on charges of graft, abuse of power and extortion.

Hasina, who ruled Bangladesh from 1996 to 2001, has denied any wrongdoing and says the charges are politically motivated.

Hasina, who leads the Awami League party, has been suffering from ear and eye ailments and was in the same hospital for 20 days last month.

Her family and party members have urged the country's army-backed interim administration to allow her to travel overseas for medical treatment, preferably to the United States where her children live.

Hasina is among 170 political figures, including her rival former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who have been detained by the administration as part of its campaign against corruption ahead of elections later this year. (Reporting by Nizam Ahmed; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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