US Vice President Dick Cheney was taken to hospital Saturday morning after experiencing shortness of breath, and left after three hours following tests showing no abnormalities, media reports said.

"I feel fine," Cheney said as he walked out of George Washington University Hospital with his wife.

Cheney, 63, "experienced some shortness of breath Saturday morning and has had a bad cold, which could be the cause for the shortness of breath," White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said earlier.

The vice president was taken to George Washington University Hospital for some tests on the recommendation of his doctors, and President George W. Bush was notified, he said.

Cheney returned Thursday night from a pheasant hunting trip in South Dakota, with a cold that left him short of breath, the reports said.

He had four heart attacks before becoming vice president in 2001, with the first occurring as early as in 1978, at the age of 37. His latest heart attack took place in November 2000, and he had an angioplasty to open a clogged artery.

Cheney was treated in hospital in March 2001, after complaining of chest pains. He had a pacemaker implanted in his chest in June 2001, which was designed to normalize an irregular heart.