The plane carrying Mrs Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo made an emergency landing at 12.13am (11.13am Singapore time) at Osaka's Kansai International Airport, a duty police officer at the airport said.

'We know that an individual from the airport has been carried out to an ambulance for emergency transportation to a nearby hospital,' said a duty police officer at the airport.

'Our understanding is that the individual required emergency care.'

Philippine Vice-President Noli de Castro told ABS-CBN News in Manila that the president's husband suffered a heart attack during the Philippine Air Lines charter flight, which was en route to a summit in Peru.

Three of his doctors have been alerted and are scheduled to fly to Osaka to help attend to him, ABS-CBN News said on its website.

The president's husband is 62 and had heart surgery last year.

Mrs Arroyo was on her way to a two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru that begins on Saturday. -- AFP