JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday showed new signs of recovery from a massive stroke, demonstrating movement on his left side as doctors resumed efforts to lift him out of an induced coma, Israeli media said.

"The prime minister moved his left hand," Doctor Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director of Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital, told reporters. The hospital said he remained in critical condition.

The reported progress came a day after Sharon slightly moved his right arm and leg in response to pain stimulation. Sharon remained unconscious yesterday, and doctors said it would be days before they could assess damage to his brain a decision with critical implications for Sharon and Mideast peace prospects.

An Israeli newspaper yesterday raised new questions about whether doctors' errors might have contributed to the stroke, saying they found out too late that he was suffering from a brain disease.

Meanwhile, Israel's defence minister said Israel will permit Arabs in Jerusalem to vote in upcoming Palestinian elections. The decision appeared to resolve a standoff that had threatened to derail the balloting and heighten frictions between Israel and the Palestinians at this sensitive time. The issue was widely seen as a key test for acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Sharon's doctors put him in a coma to give him time to heal from last Wednesday's stroke and three brain operations.

They began cutting back on the sedatives on Monday so they could begin measuring brain damage. Although movement has been reported, doctors doubt he will recover enough to resume his duties because the bleeding in his brain was extensive.

Hospital officials said Sharon's condition did not change overnight, and he remained in critical but stable condition yesterday.

Doctors continued to reduce the sedation Wednesday.

The Yediot Ahronot newspaper's website and Israel Radio quoted hospital officials as reporting movement on Sharon's left side, and stronger movements on the right side than were discerned on Monday.

Hospital spokesman Ron Krumer declined to comment on the reports.

Doctor Anthony Rudd, a stroke specialist at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, called the reports "surprising."

"It's certainly better than what I would have predicted so far. Based on the fact that he had a large haemorrhage in the right side of the brain I would have predicted advanced paralysis," Rudd said. However, he said it's possible the movement was simply involuntary reflexes.

"It doesn't take us terribly far forward," he said. "There is still a significant risk of dying."

Meanwhile, the Haaretz daily said Sharon was suffering from a disease called cerebral amyloid angiopathy, which, in combination with blood thinners he was taking, could have increased his risk for stroke.

Source: China Daily