Sharon Has Second Operation

Ariel Sharon underwent surgery for the second time in 48 hours today after a brain scan revealed his condition had deteriorated overnight.

A spokeswoman for the Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem said the operation had ended but offered no futher details. The Israeli prime minister was then taken for a second brain scan to gauge his condition.

Doctors yesterday put Mr Sharon, 77, into a medically-induced coma to allow him to recover from a massive stroke and seven hours of emergency surgery but were today forced to operate again.

Shlomo Mor-Yosef, the director of the Hadassah hospital, explained that the initial brain scan had revealed an increase in cranial pressure and changes to Mr Sharon's blood pressure.

"It was decided to bring the prime minister to the operating room in order to deal with these two issues, to drain the bleeding and to decrease the intracranial pressure," he told reporters.

Mr Sharon was rushed to hospital in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening after complaining of feeling unwell while at his ranch in the Negev. The cerebral haemorrhage - also known as a bleeding stroke - developed on the hour-long ambulance journey to Jerusalem.

An aide to veteran Israeli politician Shimon Peres said she had been told the prime minister's condition was "not good".

Mr Sharon's doctors have said he is unlikely to return to work whether he survives or not.

The stroke came at one of the most dramatic periods of his political career - after he pulled Israeli settlers out of the Gaza Strip and left the rightwing Likud to lead Kadima, a new centrist party - but effectively ends the era of his dominance.

It also leaves the future of the peace process after the March general election in doubt. Mr Sharon had been expected to follow withdrawal from Gaza with a scaling down of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Mr Sharon's deputy, Ehud Olmert, has taken the reins as acting prime minister and tried to convey a sense of stability.

In the short term, Israelis appeared to still be supporting Kadima. A poll published today in the Yediot Ahronot daily found that Kadima with Mr Olmert as its leader would win 39 of the 120 seats in parliament, compared with 20 for Labour and 16 for Likud.

The poll was conducted yesterday among 500 people. Pollsters said the results might be influenced by sympathy for Mr Sharon, and could change over the next three months.