Bill Clinton rushed to hospital with chest pains

Update: Doctors say Clinton did not have heart attack, will be sent home Friday

NEW YORK — Former President Bill Clinton was hospitalized Thursday with chest pains, US media reported.

CNN television said it had confirmed that the former Democratic president, who is now UN special envoy for Haiti, had been taken to hospital in New York complaining of chest pains.

ABC News chief political correspondent George Stephanopoulos, who is close to the Clintons, said the 63-year-old former president was taken to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. The network confirmed that Clinton had two stents installed in one of his arteries.

NBC reports that Clinton had called a cardiologist at the hospital on Tuesday, saying he wasn't feeling well.

The network also says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is heading to New York City to see her husband. Her planned trip to Qatar and Saudi Arabia this Friday is reportedly still on.

Clinton counselor Douglas Band said the former president is "in good spirits" following the procedure.

The following is a statement from Band, released Thursday afternoon:

Today President Bill Clinton was admitted to the Columbia Campus of New York Presbyterian Hospital after feeling discomfort in his chest. Following a visit to his cardiologist, he underwent a procedure to place two stents in one of his coronary arteries. President Clinton is in good spirits, and will continue to focus on the work of his Foundation and Haiti's relief and long-term recovery efforts.

Clinton underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 2004.

-- With AFP