[Al Arabiya Latest] The health of Egypt's president is improving following gallbladder surgery last week, a spokeswoman for the German hospital where he is receiving treatment said on Sunday.President Hosni Mubarak, 81, who has ruled Egypt for almost three decades, had surgery on March 6, treatment that has sparked rumors about the seriousness of his condition and weighed on Egyptian share prices.
Egypt's benchmark index dipped 2.4 percent on Sunday, partly sliding because of concerns about the health of the president, who has no designated successor.
"The president is ...well and recovering," the hospital spokeswoman, who declined to be named, told Reuters. "The improvement in his health has continued." The spokeswoman said her comment was based on a conversation with the doctor who visited the president on Sunday.
Dr. Markus Buechler, who heads the medical team treating the president, said on Thursday tissue removed during the operation was benign. He did not say when Mubarak would be discharged.
Mubarak has not said whether he will run again for a sixth six-year term in the 2011 presidential election. Many Egyptians believe that if he does not, he will try to hand power to his politician son, Gamal, 46. Both Mubarak's deny any such plan.
Zakaria Azmi, Egypt's chief of presidential staff, said Mubarak was expected to hold a live telephone conversation on Egyptian television in the next few days, Egyptian television reported on Saturday.