Former US President Gerald Ford, who was swept into office after the Watergate scandal and later pardoned Richard Nixon, died at age 93, his widow said.

"My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather, has passed away at 93 years of age," Betty Ford said in a statement.

"His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country."

A former Republican congressman, Mr Ford took office vowing: "Our long national nightmare is over". He served for two and a half years with a style often mocked as bumbling until he lost the 1976 US presidential election to Democrat Jimmy Carter. Mr Ford, the oldest living US President, had been ailing and largely out of the public eye for several years.

He was the only US President who was not elected to either the presidency or vice presidency. He was appointed Vice President in 1973 after Mr Nixon's vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned to avoid prosecution on corruption charges.

When Mr Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, to avoid impeachment in the scandal over a politically motivated burglary of Democratic Party offices in the Watergate complex in Washington, Mr Ford became President.

One month later, on September 8, 1974, Mr Ford stunned the nation and stirred enduring controversy by granting Mr Nixon "a full, free and absolute pardon" for any crime he may have committed in office.

That set the paradoxical pattern for the fill-in presidency of this rough-hewn politician who had served 26 years as a congressman from Michigan.

"President Ford was a great American who gave many years of dedicated service to our country," President George W. Bush said in a statement. "With his quiet integrity, common sense and kind instincts, President Ford helped heal our land and restore public confidence in the presidency."

Mr Ford's pastor, Reverend Robert Certain, said the former President died on Tuesday at home in Rancho Mirage, where his wife and three sons had celebrated Christmas the day before.

"They gathered for Christmas but it was anticipated it would be soon," he said in an interview. "I wouldn't be surprised if President Ford chose to exit after Christmas."

Mr Ford's death leaves three living former presidents including George H.W. Bush, Mr Carter and Bill Clinton. Mr Bush is oldest at 82, a few months senior to Mr Carter.

Mr Ford's mini-term as 38th President included two assassination attempts; the fall of Vietnam; Cambodian seizure of a US freighter, which prompted him to "send in the Marines"; constant fights with Congress; and a penchant for stumbling, head-cracking clumsiness that made him a butt of jokes.

Critics ridiculed his occasional clumsiness with barbs such as "he can't walk and chew gum at the same time".

Mr Ford revived questions about his intellect and grasp of issues with a notorious gaffe in a televised campaign debate against Mr Carter in 1976. He asserted in defence of his foreign policies that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe".

He fell just short in his fight to overcome a 30-point Mr Carter polling lead and lost one of the closest elections in US history.

Gerald Rudolph Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on July 14, 1913. His name then was Leslie King but his parents were divorced soon after his birth and he later took the name of his stepfather, Gerald Ford Sr.

A Navy officer in World War II, Mr Ford married Betty Bloomer in 1948. Mrs Ford became a national figure in her own right, first as an outspoken first lady and then as a crusader against drug and alcohol addiction.

Memorable quotes

• "I am a Ford, not a Lincoln." - December 6, 1973, after being sworn in as Vice President.

• "I have not sought this enormous responsibility but I will not shirk it... My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule." - August 9, 1974, upon being sworn in as President following the resignation of Richard Nixon.

• "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." - August 12, 1974, address to a Congress.

• "Theirs is an American tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must." - September 8, 1974, upon granting a pardon to Richard Nixon.

• "The establishment of justice and peace abroad will in large measure depend upon the peace and justice we create here in our own country, for we still show the way." - July 4, 1976, on the US bicentennial at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

• "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration." - October 6, 1976, in a presidential campaign debate against Jimmy Carter.

• "I can report that the state of the union is good. There is room for improvement, as always, but today we have a more perfect Union than when my stewardship began." - January 12, 1977, in his final State of the Union to Congress.

• "I am a loyal Wolverine. When they lose in football, basketball, or anything I still get darn disappointed." - October 8, 1994, newspaper interview before the University of Michigan retired his football number.