Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remains critically ill in hospital after undergoing emergency surgery yesterday.
Officials at Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital said Sharon's life
was not in danger following the four-hour stomach surgery needed to repair damage to his digestive system which doctors said was indicative of a wider systemic collapse in the 77-year-old patient.
'The prime minister remains in a critical but stable condition.
His life is not in danger after yesterday's intervention,' said
Hadassah spokesperson Ron Krumer.
The operation to extract around a third of his largest intestine came after doctors detected significant swelling to his abdomen.
Despite the success of the surgery, hospital director Shlomo Mor Yosef emphasised that the abdominal problems were merely a further complication to a patient who has still to emerge from the coma that was medically induced after he suffered a massive brain haemorrhage on 4 January.
Since his collapse, Ehud Olmert has stepped in as interim Prime Minister and he is due to lead the centrist Kadima party in the general election on 28 March.
