Comatose Sharon opens eyes

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon opened his eyes twice on Monday after family members played a tape of his grandson's voice, aides said, raising hopes the 77-year-old stroke victim may be emerging from a coma.

But Hadassah hospital, where Sharon has been treated since suffering a massive stroke on January 4, said relatives observed "eyelid movements" whose medical significance was unclear.

"(Sharon's son) Gilad brought in a cassette with the voice of Rotem, his eldest grandson, speaking to him, and he opened his eyes twice, each time for two or three minutes," one aide said.

"They believe it was so short because he is still fuzzy from anaesthesia yesterday," the aide said, referring to the tracheotomy, the insertion of a tube into Sharon's windpipe to help him breathe, that surgeons performed on Sunday.

"But the doctors didn't see it, so it is hard to determine whether it is serious or whether they are just getting their hopes up."

Doctors have been unsuccessful so far in rousing Sharon since reducing, and then on Saturday stopping, sedatives used to induce a coma aimed at stopping his brain from swelling.

Sharon is not expected to return to political life, but some medical experts said the eye movement could be a positive sign if the ailing leader shows repeated responses to such stimuli.

In another sign Israel is moving quickly to fill the political vacuum left by Sharon, his new Kadima party named interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as acting chairman to lead it into a March 28 general election.

Olmert, 60, has stepped firmly into the former general's shoes as the old soldier fades away from the political scene he had dominated as prime minister since 2001.

CABINET APPOINTMENTS

Olmert announced replacements from within the centrist party for cabinet ministers from the right-wing Likud who quit over the weekend in the run-up to the national ballot.

In the most high-profile appointment, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, widely seen in Israel as a rising star, will become foreign minister pending cabinet approval later in the week. She replaces Silvan Shalom of the Likud.

Opinion polls predict that Kadima, which Sharon established after bolting the right-wing Likud in November, will easily win the election with Olmert at its head.

Sharon founded the centrist party after a far-right rebellion in Likud over a Gaza pullout completed in September.

Olmert, a former mayor of Jerusalem, served as Sharon's deputy in the cabinet and was a strong supporter of the unilateral withdrawal of Israeli settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip, a pullout that boosted hopes for Middle East peace.

In a new test of Olmert's leadership, Jewish settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron set fire to Palestinian property as part of a protest over a planned eviction of settlers from several Palestinian shops.

Hundreds of settlers have clashed with Israeli security forces in the city since last week. Settlers torched six abandoned Palestinian shops on Monday, witnesses said. Police said three settlers were detained.

"The government will not accept such wild and unrestrained behaviour as seen in recent days," Olmert said on Sunday.

Moving in line with Israel's main ally, the United States, Olmert and his cabinet also gave the go-ahead on Sunday for limited voting in Arab East Jerusalem in the January 25 Palestinian parliamentary election.

But Israel banned Hamas, running in a parliamentary ballot for the first time, from campaigning in East Jerusalem. Hamas, which advocates Israel's destruction, is widely popular among Palestinians for a charity network and anti-corruption policies.

Fears of chaos during the Palestinian elections run strong, particularly in the Gaza Strip where militants rejected a Palestinian Authority plan to stow their arms during the ballot, Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Youssef said on Monday.

- REUTERS