Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, husband of President Cristina Fernandez, left hospital on Wednesday after emergency arterial surgery and was expected to soon resume his government duties.

Kirchner, a member of the lower house of Congress, is one of the nation's most powerful politicians, playing a key role in his wife's government. He is seen to be closely involved in economic policy, including a proposed swap of defaulted debt.

Local media said he was ready to resume meetings with officials in his wife's administration despite being advised to rest after the operation last weekend to unclog his left carotid, an artery that carries blood to the brain.

"I'm very well," a smiling Kirchner, 59, told reporters as he left the hospital in Buenos Aires in a car.

Kirchner has been lobbying congressmen to approve a government plan to use foreign reserves to create a $6.6 billion fund to guarantee debt repayments this year.

He served as president from 2003 to 2007, when his wife was elected to succeed him, and is widely expected to run for the presidency again in 2011, even as Fernandez's approval ratings have dropped to about 20 percent.

Reuters