Chirac doing well

French President Jacques Chirac is doing well after being admitted to a military hospital on Friday with a haematoma that affected his vision, the military's health service said yesterday.

"It concerns a small haematoma, which explains the isolated and limited character of the vision trouble," Doctor Anne Robert, the military's health service communications chief, said in a statement giving fresh details of Mr Chirac's condition.

"The clinical signs are in the process of regressing, indicating a very favourable development," she added.

"The president is resting, under straightforward medical surveillance," Ms Robert said. "I confirm that he should leave in a few days, that is to say at the end of a period of hospitalisation of around a week."

Mr Chirac, 72, cancelled his appointments for a week after slipping discreetly into hospital late on Friday following what his aides described as a "vascular accident" affecting his vision, accompanied by migraine.

Ms Robert also said Mr Chirac's admission to the Val de Grace military hospital followed a "small vascular accident". French leaders are traditionally treated at the army teaching post.

Medical experts say most people recover from such conditions. But the doctor who treated Mr Chirac's predecessor, the late Francois Mitterrand, for cancer has described it as a warning that he may need to slow down.

The illness is another blow for Mr Chirac after a string of political defeats have left him looking isolated and barely able to contain a succession struggle in his own ranks.

Mr Chirac's hospital treatment has given rise to speculation about his real state of health, with politicians and commentators denouncing the air of secrecy that surrounds presidential illnesses.

"Along with the code for the nuclear deterrent, the head of state's health is the best kept secret of the Republic," Liberation daily said.

Analysts say Mr Chirac is particularly keen to appear healthy because his main challenger Nicolas Sarkozy, 50, likes to present himself as a youthful and energetic leader.

"To say that the president is in bad health is like saying the king is naked. It makes him very vulnerable," political analyst Mariette Sineau said, adding the French have often been surprised by presidential illnesses in the past.

Gaullist Georges Pompidou died from cancer in 1974 while he was still in office. His successor, centrist President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, promised to publish health bulletins every six months, but never did.

Socialist President Francois Mitterrand pledged to release regular reports when he came into power in 1981 and did so, revealing in 1992 that he suffered from prostate cancer.

But after his death in 1996 his former doctor revealed that Mr Mitterrand had been diagnosed with prostate cancer a few months after he came to office, but falsified reports to hide it.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has dismissed criticism that Mr Chirac had spent the first night in hospital without anyone in the government - including Mr Villepin - being told. Doctors wanted to be cautious about their diagnosis, he said.

But many politicians have urged more openness. Socialist leader Francois Hollande told RTL radio: "The least question to ask in a democracy, when the head of state is in hospital, is what he's suffering from."

Dominique Paille, a deputy from Mr Chirac's ruling UMP party, proposed setting up a commission of doctors that would regularly be informed about the president's state of health and issue clear and precise medical bulletins when the president was ill.

"This system would not require a law given that you have a gentlemen's agreement and a commitment of honour on this issue during the presidential campaign," Mr Paille told Le Monde daily.