Ex-India PM Rao in intensive care

Mr Rao has a history of heart problems

India's former premier PV Narasimha Rao is in intensive care in a hospital in the capital Delhi after being admitted with heart problems.

Mr Rao, 83, who has a history of cardiac problems, is in a stable condition.

He has been in ill health for the past five years.

Mr Rao became premier in 1991, heading a Congress-led government. Its economic policies steered the socialist-style economy towards greater privatisation.

Mr Rao reported chest pains while sleeping after breakfast on Friday.

"His condition is at present stable but warrants intensive care and monitoring because of the serious nature of his recent medical problems," the All India Institute of Medical Sciences said in a statement.

Mr Rao's Congress party lost power in 1996.

In October 2000 he became the first Indian prime minister to be found guilty of corruption.

But the conviction for vote-buying was overturned in March 2002.