Saturday, January 7 2006 11:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jerusalem: With Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recovering from emergency brain surgery, his doctors said it was still too early to assess how much damage the Israeli leader has suffered from a massive stroke.

An official determination on Sharon's condition will likely take place tomorrow, when doctors plan to wean him off the drugs that are keeping him in what they said is a medically induced coma.

Sharon, 77, underwent five hours of emergency brain surgery yesterday that doctors said successfully stopped a haemorrhage and relieved swelling inside his skull. Doctors reported 'significant improvement', but said he remained in serious condition.

"There is always some damage when you have cerebral haemorrhage," Dr Felix Umansky, the chief neurosurgeon operating on Sharon, told The Associated Press.

"We cannot assess the damage because he is under anaesthesia all the time. We need to wait and see what will happen once we reduce the medication which keeps him under sedation," he said.

Sharon suffered the stroke, his second in three weeks, late Wednesday, throwing the country into turmoil. His deputy, Ehud Olmert, was quickly named the acting prime minister.

Olmert took calls from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday, a sign that the Israeli government was moving ahead without its hard-charging leader.