Yeltsin is shown meeting with his interior minister, Sergei Stepashin, on Russian television Saturday

MOSCOW (CNN) -- In the latest medical crisis to hit the Kremlin, Russian President Boris Yeltsin was hospitalized Sunday with a bleeding stomach ulcer.

A Kremlin spokesman said Yeltsin was taken to the Central Clinical Hospital, where doctors performed tests that confirmed the diagnosis. He was in stable condition, his office said Sunday.

The spokesman said Yeltsin would remain in bed while undergoing treatment and could be hospitalized for several days.

Yeltsin, 67, has been hospitalized several times in the past year, most recently for pneumonia. He now works largely from his country home outside Moscow, and his poor health has prompted critics to question whether he can perform his duties as president.

Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, the country's former intelligence chief, has been running the country on a day-to-day basis for the past four months. Primakov returned to Moscow on Saturday evening after a trip to Siberia.

Yeltsin also has suffered several heart attacks, which led to a quintuple bypass in 1996.

Yeltsin had canceled public appearances Thursday and Friday, but Kremlin officials attributed that to a heavy workload.

He has a trip to France scheduled later this month, and it was not clear whether he will be able to make the journey. It would be his first trip abroad since early October, when he had to cut short a visit to Central Asia because of illness.

His latest health crisis is likely to renew calls for him to resign from critics like Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. But Yeltsin has vowed to remain in office until his term expires in 2000.

Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty and the Associated Press contributed to this report.