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JAKARTA : Indonesia's former president Suharto was fully conscious and indicated he felt well on Wednesday, but he remained weak and in an unstable condition, doctors treating him in hospital said.
Suharto has been clinging to life since he suffered multiple organ failure last week and was hooked up to a ventilator.
Doctors said on Wednesday they had begun to wean him off the ventilator, but warned his general condition remained unstable.
"This morning I saw he was fully conscious despite being weak," said Mardjo Soebiandono, who heads the large team of specialist doctors assembled to treat Suharto.
He told reporters that when asked whether he felt well, the 86-year-old had replied, "yes."
But in a statement read out at a press conference, Soebiandono warned that "the functions of the heart and lungs are not yet stable, there is still an accumulation of fluid in the lungs and there are signs of systemic infection," adding that Suharto continued to receive blood transfusions.
The threat of sepsis - a potentially fatal poisoning that can result from infection - was still critical, said another doctor, Haryanto Reksodipuro, who added though that "there have clearly been improvements."
A third doctor, Muhammad Munawar, told ElShinta radio the process of taking Suharto off his ventilator had begun.
"Judging from the condition of the heart, kidneys and so on, it won't be possible to do it in a short time.... We started the process, but we don't know exactly when it will be finished," he said.
Suharto stepped down in 1998 amid bloody nationwide riots and burgeoning student protests triggered initially by the 1997 Asian economic crisis.
He retreated to his family home in an upmarket Jakarta suburb, rarely venturing outside and managing to avoid criminal trial for massive corruption allegations by citing poor health.
Suharto's immediate successor as president, B.J. Habibie, flew from Germany to see Suharto on Tuesday but was not allowed to see him as the former strongman was being treated by doctors, he told reporters at the hospital.
"I have come directly from Germany with my wife to visit Pak Harto but when I came up he was still under intensive care so I could only pray in the next room... for him to get well soon," he said.
A flurry of well-wishers have rushed to Suharto's side since he was first admitted to hospital on January 4, including Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee
Kuan Yew, Malaysia's former premier Mahathir Mohamad and Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, the hereditary ruler of the ancient city of Yoyakarta on Indonesia's main Java island.
Opinion on Suharto's legacy remains divided in Indonesia, where he is widely seen as bringing stability and boosting economic growth.
Around 15 members of a youth group from the satellite city of Bekasi gathered outside the hospital on Wednesday afternoon to pray for Suharto's recovery and urge the public not to forget the contribution he made to the country.
The group handed out flyers that read: "Haji Muhammad Suharto is the father of development. People have suffered in the 10 years since he stopped ruling the country."
But in the East Javanese town of Jember, dozens of protesting students on Wednesday torched pictures of Suharto and urged the government to pursue both criminal and civil suits against him despite his illness, the Okezone news portal reported.
"We pray for Suharto's recovery, but he should be brought to a special court over corruption during his rule," said one of the protestors, Asraf, according to the website. - AFP/de
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