Mubarak keeps Egypt guessing on future

CAIRO — Egypt's veteran President Hosni Mubarak has stepped up his public appearances and meetings to counter rumours of declining health but the burst of activity leaves open the question of a successor.Mubarak, 82, triggered another round of speculation on his health when he twice postponed a meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week.Arab and Israeli press reported his health was in steep decline and that he planned another visit to the German hospital where he underwent surgery in March to remove a benign growth and his gallbladder.Instead, Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt since 1981, held a series of back-to-back meetings on Sunday with Somalia's president, a US envoy, Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.He kept up the pace by attending four military and police graduation ceremonies in as many days."The president's activity is the best rebuttal to the reports that came out of Israeli and American circles," the president's spokesman Suleiman Awad told Egyptian newspapers.Presidential aides even have trouble keeping up with the octogenarian ruler, Awad said.Critics contend the lack of transparency that characterises his government has helped fuel rumours that there might be more to his surgery than was announced."The cause of the rumours is the absence of transparency and lack of information on his condition after his surgery," said Amr Shobaki, an analyst with the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.Awad's statements appear to "give the impression he is talking about a young man in his twenties, while it is only natural that the president should take into account his age and health," Shobaki said.The government insists it had been hiding nothing about Mubarak's health.But it has been loathe to answer the most pressing question in Egyptian politics today: who will succeed Mubarak as a presidential election in 2011 draws near?Mubarak may choose to run for yet another term. But if he intends to step down, which analysts say is more likely, there is no clear su

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