ARIEL SHARON, Israel’s 77-year-old prime minister, is expected to remain in hospital for several days after being taken to hospital in Jerusalem last night feeling faint and apparently briefly losing consciousness.

Doctors at Hadassah Hospital said he underwent tests, including a brain scan, after he suffered a minor stroke.

Boleslav Goldman, Mr Sharon’s personal physician, said he would “be in hospital for a few days for sure” after being given some “medication to thin his blood. There is no reason for fear.”

Hospital doctors had earlier said Mr Sharon would probably go home today.

Yuval Weiss, the hospital deputy director, said: “Initial checks showed he had a light stroke and during checks his condition improved. He was always conscious and didn’t need any surgical intervention.”

Doctors usually have a three-hour window after a stroke in which to administer a drug called TPA to try to dissolve a blood clot.

Aides said Mr Sharon had told them, “I feel fine” and that he had quipped to doctors: “You’re still not getting rid of me.”

“He is fully lucid, in full control,” said spokesman Raanan Gissin.

The question marks over Mr Sharon’s health come at a 0crucial juncture in Israeli politics, just weeks after he dramatically quit his Likud group to form a new party and call a general election.

With the poll only 14 weeks away, his new Kadima party has been riding high in the opinion polls with the opposition Labour party languishing far in its wake, and the bickering right-wing rump of Likud in the doldrums as it is due to hold its own leadership elections today.

But as the architect of the summer’s Gaza withdrawal from Jewish settlements, Mr Sharon is Kadima’s key electoral asset. Any doubts about his health will cast new light on the March 28 election and the future of the rocky Middle East peace process.

Last night Mr Sharon, the former general who is considerably overweight, had earlier finished a meeting at his Jerusalem office with Shimon Peres. The former Labour leader, who quit his party and threw his weight behind Kadima, said the Prime Minister had appeared fine and been in good spirits.

But shortly afterwards, he was on the phone to his younger son Gilad as he travelled to a another meeting by car and complained of feeling unwell. Aides diverted his convoy towards the hospital but he lost consciousness for a short time during the journey, according to a doctor. Mr Sharon’s office later denied that he was unconscious at any time.

Doctors at the hospital said that he was conscious when he arrived and was taken to the trauma room, where he could be treated in privacy. Mr Sharon’s security entourage sealed off the area.

A team of neurologists was summoned to examine Mr Sharon. But soon after the tests, he was said to be in good spirits and joking with doctors at the hospital, where he was said to be in a stable condition.

His sons Gilad and the Knesset member, Omri, were with him at Hadassah hospital last night. But in an apparent effort to convey as much normality as possible, Mr Sharon’s advisers asked Cabinet colleagues not to come to his side.

Last year, Mr Sharon underwent minor surgery for the removal of a cancerous growth on his face and three years ago he had an operation to remove kidney or gall stones.

However, if he were incapacitated for any length of time, his long-time ally and deputy prime minister Ehud Olmert, who also defected to the Kadima party, would act as caretaker premier.

Mr Sharon received several goodwill messages from world leaders. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, wished Mr Sharon a speedy recovery, as did the White House. But in the Gaza Strip, some Palestinians fired rifles in the air, shouting, “Death to Sharon”.

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