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JAKARTA : Indonesia's former president Suharto clung tenaciously to life Monday in hospital on respiratory assistance, a day after doctors warned his family to prepare for the worst.
The octogenarian ex-president, who ruled Indonesia for 32 years, suffered multiple organ failure last Friday, a week after he was initially admitted to hospital with a weakening heart, kidney and lungs.
On Sunday, doctors, who said he remains in a very critical condition, gave him a 50-50 chance of survival and gathered his family to warn them to prepare for his death.
But Mardjo Soebiandono, the doctor heading the team treating Suharto, said Monday that his "general condition is improving."
"There is an improvement in the functioning of the heart, the ventilator is still on, but there are also some problems in the functioning of his lungs," he told reporters.
He said he was taken off sedatives this morning to test his consciousness, "and the assessment is that there was a response."
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's spokesman told AFP Sunday that a planned visit by military-ruled Myanmar's prime minister this week had been postponed "because the national mood is not conducive at the moment" for it.
"We will reschedule the visit at a time more convenient to both sides," spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said.
At the Suharto family mausoleum, located outside the ancient Central Java city of Solo, workers scurried over the weekend to spruce up the surrounds in preparation for a possibly imminent burial.
The grave of Suharto's wife, who died in 1996, lies near what has long been designated as the former leader's final resting place.
Spotlights were mounted and identification cards were issued to the media to cover his eventual funeral in the national colours of red and white, reading: "Burial of the Great Commander, retired General HM Suharto." - AFP/ch
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