Surgery after Sharon’s condition worsens

Medical experts called the renewed bleeding, two days after Sharon’s stroke, a serious deterioration in his condition. ‘‘It could be fatal and must be dealt with immediately,’’ Dr Yair Lempel, a neurologist from Wolfson Hospital near Tel Aviv, said.

Sharon, long reviled in the Arab world but increasingly regarded as a peacemaker by the West, suffered his stroke at a crucial juncture in Israeli politics, as he was fighting for re-election on a promise to end conflict with the Palestinians.

On Thursday, surgeons said they had stemmed bleeding in Sharon’s brain in a seven-hour operation and intended to bring him out of the coma as early as Saturday.

Medical experts said that if Sharon pulled through, his faculties could be seriously impaired, making a return to work impossible. His deputy, Ehud Olmert, was named acting prime minister on Wednesday after Sharon fell ill.

‘‘This is the deadliest and most disabling form of stroke that we face,’’ said Dr Stephan Mayer, associate professor of neurology and neurosurgery at Columbia University Medical Center in New York in an interview.

But Sharon’s doctors, speaking before he went back into surgery, cautioned against jumping to conclusions before Sharon is revived and they can more fully assess his physical and mental abilities.

‘‘For some reason, everyone is mentioning the less pleasant things…any assessment is irresponsible—things can go one way or the other,’’ Shmuel Shapira, Hadassah’s deputy director, told Channel Two.

Political analysts said Israel’s March 28 election, which Sharon had been widely expected to win as head of the new centrist Kadima party, would become an open race.

But two opinion polls published in newspapers on Friday suggested that under Olmert, Kadima would still win around 40 of parliament’s 120 seats—well ahead of Likud, the rightist party Sharon abandoned this year, and centre-Left Labour.

Sharon had been campaigning on a platform of readiness to give up some occupied land in the West Bank, but has vowed to hold on to major West Bank settlement blocs, a prospect Palestinians say would deny them a viable state.

At Hadassah, Sharon’s two sons and a clutch of close aides and friends maintained a vigil at his bedside.

President George W Bush said the US sent its sympathies to Sharon. ‘‘We pray for his recovery,’’ Bush said. ‘‘He’s a good man, a strong man, a man who cared deeply about the security of the Israeli people and a man who had a vision for peace.’’ Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas telephoned Sharon’s office to express hopes for his recovery.

But Palestinian militant factions, battered by Sharon’s harsh measures to fight a five-year uprising, reacted with glee. ‘‘The downfall of the Dracula of the century is a day of happiness.” — Reuters