The Egyptian Minister of Health Hatem al-Gabali announced Monday that President Hosni Mubarak's health continues to improve after an operation in Germany to remove his gall bladderThe 81-year-old is recuperating in Heidelberg University Hospital in southwestern Germany after undergoing surgery during which he also had a growth removed from his small intestine.
"The state of the president's health continues to improve two days after the operation," Gabali, who is in Germany with Mubarak, said in a statement.
Mubarak's wife Suzanne and other family members are with him. He is able to move about in his room and can also now eat semi-solid foods, the information ministry said in a statement.
"Over the coming two days, the medical team treating the president will make a new report on the president's health condition," the statement added.
Mubarak had suffered from chronic calculus cholecystitis -- an inflammation of the gall bladder accompanied by gall stones -- and a duodenal polyp.
Dr Markus Buchler, who led the Heidelberg team that operated on the Egyptian president, said on Sunday he was "very satisfied" with Mubarak's progress and his general state of health.
In 2004 the president was treated in Germany for a slipped disc.
Egypt's Mubarak has delegated executive powers to the Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif until he returns to Cairo.
The president's health is usually a taboo subject in the country he has ruled since 1981, fuelling regular rumours. Journalists writing about Mubarak's health have been handed jail sentences in the past.
Mubarak's fifth six-year term as president ends in 2011. During a speech in 2005, he said he would stay in power until his "last breath."
