The fate of President Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia was unclear today after his vice-president denied media reports that he had died in a Paris hospital.

Earlier South African radio had quoted a Zambian high commission spokesman as saying the president, one of the most outspoken African critics of the Mugabe regime, "passed on this morning". But Rupiah Banda said in a statement that the report was "not true", adding that Mr Mwanawasa’s condition remained stable and he was continuing to receive treatment for hypertension.

The President had spent a "satisfactory night" in the intensive care unit of the Percy military hospital and there were "no new developments", the vice-president added.

Mr Mwanawasa was flown to Paris yesterday after being hospitalised in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday, just ahead of a key African Union summit.

In Paris, a spokesman for the Armed Forces Health Service declined to comment. “We do not ever confirm or deny the presence of a patient in a military hospital,” he said.

The President chaired the Southern African Development Community, which has been mediating between President Robert Mugabe and the Zimbabwean opposition to try to end a political crisis in the country.

His illness sidelined one of Mr Mugabe’s chief regional critics during an African Union summit at which the veteran Zimbabwean leader suffered unprecedented condemnation from some of his peers, including another neighbour, Botswana.

Some African delegates said his absence hurt efforts to take a stronger united stance against Mr Mugabe, with the AU's final resolution stopping short of declaring his victory in a sham one-man election invalid and calling only for dialogue aimed at power-sharing between the ruling Zanu-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

The head of the Egyptian hospital that treated Mr Mwanawasa, Saeed Abdel Fattah Essa, said the president was in a semi-coma when evacuated to Paris from Egypt. The Zambian president had a brain haemorrhage, or hemorrhagic stroke, which Egyptian doctors had managed to stop, Dr Essa said.

The Zambian leader is well-regarded in the West for his crackdown on corruption and government spending, which saw him received billions of dollars in debt relief from the International Monetary Fund and other donors.

He suffered a mild stroke in 2006 but said before being re-elected that year that he was fit to stand for office.

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