January 17, 2006	Tuesday	Zilhaj 16, 1426

JERUSALEM, Jan 16: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon opened his eyes twice on Monday after family members played a tape of his grandson’s voice, aides said, raising hopes the 77-year-old stroke victim may be emerging from a coma.

But Hadassah hospital, where Mr Sharon has been treated since suffering a massive stroke on Jan 4, said relatives observed ‘eyelid movements’ whose medical significance was unclear.

“(Sharon’s son) Gilad brought in a cassette with the voice of Rotem, his eldest grandson, speaking to him, and he opened his eyes twice, each time for two or three minutes,” one aide said.

“They believe it was so short because he is still fuzzy from anaesthesia yesterday,” the aide said, referring to the tracheotomy, the insertion of a tube into Mr Sharon’s windpipe to help him breathe, that surgeons performed on Sunday.

“But the doctors didn’t see it, so it is hard to determine whether it is serious or whether they are just getting their hopes up.”

Doctors have been unsuccessful so far in rousing Mr Sharon since reducing, and then on Saturday stopping, sedatives used to induce a coma aimed at stopping his brain from swelling.

Mr Sharon is not expected to return to political life, but some medical experts said the eye movement could be a positive sign if the ailing leader shows repeated responses to such stimuli.

In another sign Israel is moving quickly to fill the political vacuum left by Mr Sharon, his new Kadima party named interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as acting chairman to lead it into a March 28 general election.

Mr Olmert, 60, has stepped firmly into the former general’s shoes as the old soldier fades away from the political scene he had dominated as prime minister since 2001.

CABINET APPOINTMENTS: Mr Olmert announced replacements from within the centrist party for ministers from the right-wing Likud who quit over the weekend in the run-up to the national ballot.

In the most high-profile appointment, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, widely seen in Israel as a rising star, will become foreign minister pending cabinet approval later in the week. She replaces Silvan Shalom of the Likud.

Opinion polls predict that Kadima, which Mr Sharon established after bolting the right-wing Likud in November, will easily win the election with Mr Olmert at its head.

Mr Sharon founded the centrist party after a far-right rebellion in Likud over a Gaza pullout completed in September.

Mr Olmert, a former mayor of Jerusalem, served as Mr Sharon’s deputy in the cabinet and was a strong supporter of the unilateral withdrawal of Israeli settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip, a pullout that boosted hopes for Middle East peace. —Reuters