LOS ANGELES, Dec 27: Former president Gerald Ford, who sought to heal the United States after the trauma of the Watergate scandal that forced Richard Nixon from office in 1974, died late Tuesday at the age of 93.

Flags flew at half mast, and tributes poured in for the unassuming politician who rose to the presidency without winning a national election, and closed the book on Watergate with a controversial pardon of Nixon.

President George W. Bush hailed Ford's “strong and steady” leadership from 1974 to 1977 during a “period of great division and turmoil” following disclosure of the Nixon administration's widespread political intrigue and cover-up.

“For a nation that needed healing ... Gerald Ford came along when we needed him most,” Bush said in brief remarks televised across the nation on Wednesday.

His wife of 58 years, Betty Ford, said in a brief statement announcing his death that her husband, who became the longest living US president last month, had lived a life filled by “God, family and his country.” “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,” the former first lady said in the statement released late Tuesday by Ford's office in Rancho Mirage, California.—AFP