Doctors wait for report, keep Sharon in coma

Sitting next to Sharon8217;s vacant chair at the weekly cabinet meeting, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledged to 8216;8216;run matters as he would have wished8217;8217;. He added: 8216;8216;We were very encouraged to hear the doctors8217; assessment that the situation is stabilising and even improving, and that there is a glimmer of hope.8217;8217;

Shlomo Mor-Yosef, the hospital director, said on Saturday Sharon8217;s condition had improved slightly after emergency surgery on Friday to staunch bleeding in his skull. 8216;8216;We as human beings are optimistic,8217;8217; he said. 8216;8216;But I cannot say that the Prime Minister has come out of danger.8217;8217;

Doctors also said there was no guarantee Sharon would regain consciousness even when his sedation was lifted.

Throughout the Jewish state, radios were tuned to news broadcasts for any scrap of new information. At an Israeli soccer league match on Saturday, loudspeakers announced: 8216;8216;Today we are playing soccer but all our eyes are on the hospital.8217;8217;

On Sunday, the acting prime minister chaired the first regular cabinet meeting without Sharon. 8216;8216;Israel8217;s democracy is strong and its institutions are functioning seriously and as they should,8217;8217; he said in comments broadcast by public radio. 8216;8216;If I could talk to him today, I am sure Arik would tell me, 8216;Thanks for your wishes, but you must work to safeguard the safety and economy of Israel8217;, and that is what we will do.8217;8217;