Former US president GR Ford hospitalised

President Gerald R Ford was admitted to Vail Valley Medical Centre in Vail, Colorado, after experiencing shortness of breath.

Former US president Gerald Ford, who replaced and then pardoned disgraced president Richard Nixon, has been hospitalised with breathing problems, his secretary said on Wednesday.

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"President Gerald R Ford was admitted to Vail Valley Medical Centre in Vail, Colorado, after experiencing shortness of breath," assistant Penny Circle said in a statement.

"He is expected to be released today and will return to his home in Beaver Creek," she said.

Ford, 93, became the 38th president in 1974, after Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment in Congress as a result of the Watergate scandal, in which Nixon administration officials broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington's Watergate complex and then covered up the burglary.

Ford replaced vice president Spiro Agnew, who had resigned after an inquiry into his finances, leaving Ford to fill the presidency after Nixon resigned.

Faced with Democratic leadership in Congress and unable to promote any legislative agenda as long as the nation was fixated on Nixon's fate, Ford pardoned the former president.

Prior to serving in the White House, Ford represented the US state of Michigan in Congress.