BERLIN (Reuters) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had benign tissue removed during an operation in Germany and his overall condition continues to improve, according to a Heidelberg University Hospital medical bulletin on Thursday.
Mubarak, 81, had successful gallbladder surgery on Saturday and was released from the intensive care unit on Wednesday.
Mubarak has ruled Egypt for almost three decades. As with other occasions when he has had medical treatment, the latest incident sparked rumors about his condition. Shares dipped on Tuesday because of such talk.
"The final pathology report has confirmed the benign nature of the tissues removed during the surgery," Dr Markus Buechler of Heidelberg University Hospital said in the statement, issued via the Egyptian government.
"President Mubarak's convalescence phase in the coming days will include increased physical mobility to recover from all the effects of the surgical intervention."
In the statement, Buechler added: "President Mubarak's overall medical condition continues to improve in a satisfactory manner. Yesterday he was transferred from the intensive care unit to a regular room in our hospital."
The bulletin did not say when Mubarak would be released.
"He is also expected to gradually return to normal diet," Buechler said. "The president will remain during this phase under our medical care and our direct and continuous supervision."
Mubarak, who has never appointed a vice president since he took over power in 1981, handed powers temporarily to his prime minister, Ahmed Nazif, before the operation.
Mubarak has not said if he will run again for a sixth six-year term in the 2011 presidential election. Many Egyptians believe that if he does not, he will seek to hand power to his politician son, Gamal, 46. Both Mubaraks deny any such plan.
(Reporting by Paul Carrel and David Stamp; writing by Erik Kirschbaum; editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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