CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak s health continues to improve after an operation in Germany to remove his gall bladder, Health Minister Hatem El-Gabaly said on Monday.

The 81-year-old is recuperating in Heidelberg University Hospital in southwestern Germany after undergoing surgery during which he also had a growth removed from his small intestine.

The state of the president s health continues to improve two days after the operation, Gabaly, who is in Germany with Mubarak, said in a statement.

Mubarak s wife Suzanne and other family members are with him. He is able to move about in his room and can also now eat semi-solid foods, the information ministry said in a statement.

Over the coming two days, the medical team treating the president will make a new report on the president s health condition, the statement added.

Mubarak had suffered from chronic calculus cholecystitis – an inflammation of the gall bladder accompanied by gall stones – and a duodenal polyp.

Dr Markus Buchler, who led the Heidelberg team that operated on the Egyptian president, said on Sunday he was very satisfied with Mubarak s progress and his general state of health.

In 2004 the president was treated in Germany for a slipped disc.

Mubarak has delegated executive powers to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif until he returns to Cairo.

The president s health is usually a taboo subject in the country he has ruled since 1981, fuelling regular rumors. Journalists writing about Mubarak s health have been handed jail sentences in the past.

Mubarak s fifth six-year term as president ends in 2011. During a speech in 2005, he said he would stay in power until his last breath. -AFP