Assad said hospitalized for heart ailment

CAIRO [MENL] -- Diplomats are watching closely on Wednesday to determine whether Syrian President Hafez Assad is well.

Assad was reported by Arab diplomats to have been taken to a Damascus hospital on Tuesday night for treatment of a heart ailment. Israel's private second channel quoted "credible Egyptian sources in contact with Syrian officials" as confirming the report but said Assad's life was not in danger.

The report was not confirmed by Syrian officials. The official Syrian media did not report the incident.

But in what could have been a response to the reports that swept the Arab world on Tuesday night, the official Syrian news agency Sana said Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah will hold talks with Assad on Wednesday. The report, broadcast one hour after the Israeli television broadcast, said Assad would preside over a banquet in Abdullah's honor.

Israeli analysts played down the reports, saying they probably emanated from Syrian or Lebanese opposition elements. "Every few years we hear these rumors," said Moshe Maoz, a Syrian expert at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. "This could be connected to the [Lebanese] Maronites, who are trying to hurt him."

On Wednesday, a French diplomatic source who follows Syria said he did not hear any credible report that Assad was ill.

Assad, 68, is said to suffer from heart and other ailments. He is grooming his son Bashar as a successor.

In April, Western diplomatic sources reported that Assad was suffering from fatigue and other ailments that prevented him from flying to Moscow for talks with Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Arab diplomatic sources, however, dismissed the assertion and said Assad was functioning normally.