Indian PM 'out of intensive care'

Mr Manmohan Singh is likely to be in hospital for at least a week after surgery
Indian PM Manmohan Singh has been moved out of intensive care at a Delhi hospital after undergoing heart bypass surgery at the weekend, doctors say.

The 76-year-old prime minister was making a "speedy recovery" at the state-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences, they said.

Doctors said earlier that they expected Mr Singh to resume some official duties within two to four weeks.

But they said it would be up to six weeks before he was fully active.

During the 11-hour operation, surgeons performed five bypasses on the leader.

He is expected to remain in hospital for seven to eight days.

'Rejoicing'

The ruling Congress Party said he would still lead the party in the forthcoming general election which is due by May.

"The entire country is rejoicing because our prime minister has come out successfully from the operation," Congress spokesman Veerappa Moily was quoted by AFP as saying on Tuesday.

Mr Singh, who previously had bypass surgery in 1990 and an angioplasty in 2004, had complained of chest pains earlier in the week.

He was admitted to hospital on Friday. The operation began at 0845 local time (0315 GMT) on Saturday and ended at 1930 (1400 GMT), his personal physician said.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences is India's top state-run hospital.

Congress has dismissed concerns that Mr Singh's health will interfere with its current election campaign.

But there has been widespread speculation that party chief Sonia Gandhi has been lining up her son, Rahul Gandhi, heir to India's powerful Gandhi dynasty, as the country's next prime minister.

Mr Singh has largely been in good health since he was sworn in as prime minister in May 2004, but he recently underwent prostate surgery and has also had cataract treatment.

Mr Singh, who studied economics at Cambridge and Oxford, became India's finance minister in 1991 when the country was plunging towards bankruptcy, and is widely regarded as the architect of the country's economic reform programme.