Pakistan president in Dubai for heart op

Pakistan's embattled President Asif Ali Zardari will remain in hospital in Dubai until further notice after suffering a minor heart attack and undergoing an operation, officials say.

The unpopular 56-year-old head of state flew to the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday after falling ill in the midst of a major scandal over alleged attempts by a close aide to seek US help to limit the power of Pakistan's military.

His illness sparked media reports that he is contemplating resignation, but loyalists have ruled out any question that he may step down and the president has defied many critics in already holding onto power for three years.

"He had a minor heart attack on Tuesday. He flew to Dubai where he had an angioplasty. He's in good health now," Mustafa Khokhar, adviser to the prime minister on human rights who sits in the cabinet, told AFP.

"There's no question of any resignation," he added.

The prime minister office said the president was "stable" but would remain under observation as doctors examine the cause of his illness.

A statement gave no time-frame for the treatment and made no mention of a heart attack, saying only that he went to Dubai following symptoms related to a "pre-existing heart condition" at the "insistence" of his three children.

Zardari is out of the country at a time when Pakistan is battling a major crisis in US relations after NATO air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26.

In his absence, his powers are transferred to the chairman of the Senate, Farooq Naek, a senior member of Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

One cabinet minister told a television show that he was being kept in intensive care, but only as a means of keeping visitors to a minimum.

"President Zardari's condition is now stable. He was taken to ICU because he was getting a lot of visitors," Petroleum Minister Asim Hussain told Geo TV.

"He will stay there for the next two to three days and will be back home after that."

The PPP spokesman Qamar Zaman Kaira told AFP that President Zardari has undergone different tests. "All the tests conducted so far are normal and he (Zardari) is stable."

He was however, not sure when the President will be back home. "It is difficult to say anything right now. It will depend on the doctors' advice."

Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed al-Maktoum, visited Zardari and wished him a "speedy recovery", the official WAM news agency reported.

Zardari took office after the PPP won general elections in February 2008, three months after his wife, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated.

Although he has survived numerous crises and calls for his resignation, he has come under growing pressure over a memo allegedly written by close aide Husain Haqqani asking for American assistance in curbing the powerful military.

The website of the US magazine Foreign Policy reported that Zardari had been considering his resignation over health fears and the "memogate scandal".

The article quoted an unnamed former US government official as saying Zardari was "incoherent" when he spoke to President Barack Obama by telephone over the weekend following the lethal NATO strikes.

Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar dismissed reports that he may be forced to step down as "speculative, imaginary and untrue".