Sharon to remain in coma until Monday
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-08 19:32

Earlier, the hospital said Sharon's condition had not changed overnight, and that he remained in critical but stable condition.

Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem January 8, 2006. Doctors treating Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided on January 8, 2006 to carry out another brain scan before determining when to begin rousing him from a medically induced coma and assess damage caused by a stroke. [Reuters]

Channel 10 TV reported that doctors were inclined not to lift the sedation Sunday.

When waking Sharon from his coma, doctors will be "looking for some sort of response," the director of Hadassah Hospital, Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, said on Saturday. "If there is no response, that would be bad news."

At the Israeli Cabinet's regular weekly meeting Sunday, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told ministers that Sharon would want everyone to return to work on the country's pressing security, social and economic issues.

"This we will continue to do," he said. "We will continue also to carry out the wishes of Sharon, to manage affairs as necessary."

Before his collapse, Sharon appeared headed to win a third term in office at the head of Kadima, a new, centrist party he formed to build on the momentum created by his seminal summer withdrawal of soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip.

Although Israel and the Palestinians have not managed to use the withdrawal to jump-start long-stalled peace talks, there had been hope peacemaking would resume after Palestinian elections in January and Israeli balloting in March.

It is far from clear if Olmert or any of Sharon's other potential successors would have the charisma, credibility and hard-charging spirit that helped him to begin carrying out the historic task of drawing Israel's final borders.

Dr. Gal Ifergan, a neurologist at Israel's Soroka Hospital who is not treating Sharon, said doctors on Sunday would look at factors such as the size of the brain, the results of CT scans and general body functions like blood pressure and body temperature before deciding whether to end the sedation.

A brain scan Saturday showed intracranial swelling had gone down slightly, Mor-Yosef said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon listens to questions during a news conference in Jerusalem in this February 15, 2005 file photo. [Reuters/file]

Sharon, who experienced a mild stroke on Dec. 18, felt weak on Wednesday and was rushed to Hadassah from his ranch in southern Israel when a blood vessel on the right side of his brain burst, causing massive cerebral hemorrhaging.

Outside experts have said the outlook for recovery is grim, and aides said they do not expect Sharon to return to the prime minister's office.

King Abdullah of Jordan called Olmert on Saturday to express "hope that the Mideast peace process would not be affected by any circumstances and developments surrounding Ariel Sharon's illness," Jordan's official Petra news agency reported.

Since Wednesday's stroke, Israelis from all walks of life have lamented Sharon's likely departure from the political scene because, with his larger-than life persona and warrior credentials, Sharon was widely seen as the man most capable of untangling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

At synagogues throughout Israel on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, worshippers set aside political differences and prayed for Sharon's health.

David Zvuluni, huddled with three other worshippers outside his Jerusalem synagogue, said he opposed Sharon's Gaza withdrawal, but at this moment wished him only well.

"I don't believe there's a synagogue in the country that's not praying for Sharon," he said. "There are just a few lunatics, but the rest of the people of Israel are all praying for him, even those, like us, who opposed him."