Veteran Israeli politician Shimon Peres pledged support on Sunday for Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lay in a medically induced coma in hospital after undergoing surgery to stem bleeding in his brain, Israel Radio reported.

Peres, a former prime minister and former Labor party leader, said the decision to make Olmert serve as acting prime minister was a correct one and he would offer Olmert all the help he needed.

Peres, who quit the Labor Party following his unexpected defeat by trade unionist Amir Peretz in the party's leadership race in November 2005, has pledged solidarity with Sharon's newly founded Kadima party.

Peres met with Olmert on Friday, but refused to state decisively whether he would be staying in the Kadima, which was established by Sharon in November, 2005, after he quit the Likud party to avoid further confrontation with Likud hard-liners who were infuriated by Sharon's disengagement plan.

Under the plan, Israel ended its 38 years of occupation in the Gaza Strip by withdrawing troops and some 8,500 settlers from all settlements in the tiny coastal strip, which Israel captured along with the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and the Palestinians want for a viable state.

Kadima members said Peres would be among the top five figures on the parliament list and would be named minister in the coming round of appointments, as Sharon had planned, although a Kadima minister accused Peres earlier Sunday of playing the political game.

Sharon remained in critical but stable condition on Sunday after he was rushed to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital for a major stroke Wednesday night. He has underwent three surgeries within two days.

Doctors will decide on Sunday when to wake him from the medically induced coma in order to assess the extent of damage to his brain functioning.

Doctors were cautious on to what extent the 77-year-old's faculties would be impaired by the stroke.

Sharon's hospitalization dashed hopes raised by Israel's Gaza withdrawal and cast doubts over peace prospects with the Palestinians.

Source: Xinhua