CHINESE leaders have cut short trips to the provinces and returned to Beijing amid reports that the health of the Chinese paramount leader, Mr Deng Xiaoping, has deteriorated sharply after a massive stroke.
President Jiang Zemin returned at the weekend from a visit to the communist revolutionary base of Ganzhou in central Jiangxi province and the Prime Minister, Mr Li Peng, cut short a tour of the southern province of Guangdong, the reports said.
Although he has not held formal office since 1990, Mr Deng has exerted great influence in retirement as a proponent of reform and the opening of China to the West. His death would create an element of uncertainty in the country's top leadership.
There was no official comment last night on reports that he was near death.
Speculation was also strong that the Chinese leaders might have returned to the capital to deal with the diplomatic crisis caused by the alleged defection of a senior North Korean official, Mr Hwang Jangyop, a top adviser to North Korea's supreme leader, Mr Kim Jong Il.
A western diplomat, referring to a Saturday report in a Hong Kong newspaper that Mr Deng (92) suffered a massive stroke last Thursday, said: "We are sure that the state of Deng's health was a serious issue on Thursday. This is not the first time that rum ours have circulated on this subject, but this time a number of embassies have obtained independent information on this and we are prepared for the worst."
Chinese officials played down the report, which appeared in the Apple Daily newspaper. "I think, for someone of that advanced age, the state of his health should be described as all right," a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said last week at a meeting of EU and Asian foreign ministers in Singapore.
Reuter adds from Paris: The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, said last night she could not confirm reports that Mr Deng Xiaoping's health is deteriorating.
"I've heard some reports from Beijing. . but I can't corroborate anything," Ms Albright told a news conference with the French Foreign Minister, Mr Herve de Charette.
Ms Albright, due in Beijing next Monday for high level meetings, was asked about reports that Mr Deng's deteriorating health has forced his top lieutenants to hurry to his bedside.