Former U.S. President Gerald Ford (R) stands with his wife Betty. (Reuters/filephoto)

    BEIJING, Jan. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Gerald Ford, the oldest living former U.S. president, has been admitted to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California on Monday for treatment of pneumonia, his spokeswoman said.

    "President Ford is doing well and resting comfortably," spokeswoman Penny Circle said in a prepared statement. She did not indicate whether the bout of pneumonia was related to a brief hospital visit last month for a bad cold.

    Ford, a former college football player, suffered two small strokes in 2000 and a dizzy spell on the golf course in 2003.

    Ford,  who steered the U.S. through the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, became the nation's 38th president on Aug. 9, 1974, after Nixon resigned from office. He lost the presidential election in 1976 to Democrat Jimmy Carter.

    He stunned the nation and stirred enduring controversy in 1974 by granting Nixon "a full, free and absolute pardon" for any crime he may have committed in office.

    He was the only U.S. president to assume the office without being elected president or vice president. He was appointed by President Richard Nixon to replace Vice President Spiro Agnew, who resigned in 1973 while under criminal investigation.

    Ford, who represented Michigan in the House of Representatives from 1949, rose steadily through Republican ranks to become the House minority leader in the 1960s, making up what he lacked in glamour with genial manner, fairness and a reputation for integrity. Enditem

    (Agencies)