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Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa suffered a stroke at the African Union summit in Egypt, but his condition has stabilised, Vice President Rupiah Banda said today.

President Mwanawasa (59) was rushed to a hospital yesterday ahead of the AU summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The summit, which opened today, is expected to focus largely on the post-election crisis in Zimbabwe.

The Zambian leader is a favourite of the International Monetary Fund and other Western donors, who have extended billions of dollars in debt relief after his crackdown on government spending and launch of an anti-graft drive.

"I wish to inform the nation that the president had suffered a stroke. However, upon being attended to by doctors his condition has been described as stable," Banda said in a statement.

A government spokesman earlier said Mwanawasa, who had a mild stroke in 2006, remained in hospital and was being treated for high blood pressure. Another official, who did not want to be named, said the president had appeared ill last week.

Egyptian health sources said Mwanawasa was conscious but immobile in the intensive care ward at a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh and that specialists had travelled from Cairo to attend to him.

Doctors hoped to move him to the Egyptian capital but felt it was too soon for him to make the journey.

President Mwanawasa, who is the current chairman of the Southern African Development Community, has been one of the more vocal critics of the veteran Zimbabwean leader and had expressed understanding for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai when he pulled out of the presidential poll last week.

He became Zambia's vice president in 1991 after Frederick Chiluba ousted founding President Kenneth Kaunda in landmark multiparty elections. Mwanawasa won the presidency in 2001 and was re-elected in 2006.