[Arab News] Reports about a deterioration in Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's health are categorically false, his information minister said on Tuesday, two days after a US newspaper said Mubarak was dying of cancer."The president is in good health and has been given a clean bill of health by his doctors, following his recent gallbladder surgery in Germany," Information Minister Anas El Fekky said in a statement to Reuters.
"We obviously understand the interest in this issue given Egypt's geopolitical weight, and the president's role as a force for stability in the Middle East. However, the media reports published on the president's health are based on nothing more than rumor and speculation without any factual basis whatsoever, including a recent report citing anonymous intelligence sources."
An article in The Washington Times on Sunday said Mubarak was thought by most Western intelligence agencies to be suffering from terminal cancer affecting his stomach and pancreas.
It cited a central European intelligence officer as saying the 82-year-old leader could have less than a year to live.
Rumours about Mubarak's health have rattled markets in the past because he has no designated successor. He has not picked a vice president, the post he held before taking office in 1981.
The president has returned to a regular schedule of meetings with visiting officials since having surgery at Germany's Heidelberg University Hospital in March. On Sunday he met Palestinian and Israeli leaders and other officials.
He also appeared on Egyptian television on Tuesday attending a graduation ceremony for the Egyptian police academy. Television footage showed Mubarak standing to pin medals on graduates.
The Washington Times report was the latest of several reports questioning the president's health.
The Economist published an extensive report this week on Egypt which described his health as "not good."
Egypt dismissed last week a report in Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper that Mubarak would travel abroad for treatment.