The 90-year-old Jimmy Carter, who was US president from 1977 to 1981, said Wednesday that he's been diagnosed with cancer and is heading directly to a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.

"Recent liver surgery revealed that I have cancer that now is in other parts of my body," Carter said in a brief statement. "I will be rearranging my schedule as necessary so I can undergo treatment by physicians at Emory Healthcare."

Carter was defeated in an electoral landside by Ronald Reagan in 1980. But his reputation has since grown stronger following his campaign over health insurance and election monitoring in Latin America and elsewhere.

Carter had cut short a trip to Guyana in May after falling ill and returned to his home state of Georgia, where he had served as governor and a legislator. He had traveled to the South American country to observe national elections.

An outspoken former statesman

Carter published his latest book last month, titled "A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety."

In a recent interview with the Reuters news agency, the former peanut farmer said the civil rights movement led to important progress toward racial equality in the United States, but lamented "there's still a great prejudice in police forces against black people and obviously some remnants of extreme racism."

He is one of four living former US presidents; the others are George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

jar/gsw (Reuters, AP)