French President Jacques Chirac will be hospitalised for a week with a blood vessel problem that has affected his vision, officials said on Saturday. The 72-year-old French leader was admitted to a Paris military hospital late on Friday and all his appointments for the coming week have been cancelled at his request, a spokeswoman for Chirac's office said. There was no mention of any temporary handover of authority.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said he believed the problems would clear up in a few days. "I spoke to the president by telephone this morning and he's in great form," he told cheering party workers at a rally of the ruling conservatives in western France. Villepin said he had discussed government business with Chirac and would return early to Paris to visit him.
An aide however said Villepin had not been informed the president was in hospital until Saturday morning, when Chirac himself broke the news to his political protege. Chirac's office said he was suffering from "slight eyesight difficulties" following a blood vessel problem known as a "vascular accident", but did not give any other details.
Aides said Chirac would undergo a series of tests including a brain scan. Experts said doctors would in such cases check whether the blood vessel problem had formed around the eye or further back in the brain, which in the worst scenario could point to a "cerebral vascular accident", otherwise known as a stroke.