Kuwait Emir has brain haemorrhage

Pro-Western: The Emir of Kuwait

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait -- The emir of oil-rich Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah, has suffered a brain haemorrhage and is being flown to Britain for treatment.

But a palace statement said the emir, 73, was "fully conscious and not in intensive care."

A steady flow of officials and members of the ruling al-Sabah family were seen entering the Emiri Hospital in Kuwait City.

The emir "suffered an ailment which led to his admission to hospital with a brain haemorrhage," the statement said, adding that he would be flown to Britain later on Friday.

Kuwait's health minister, Mohammad al-Jarallah, a physician, told reporters at the hospital the emir was alert and in "stable condition."

"If his health did not permit, we would not have decided to move him to Britain," the minister told Reuters. "His Highness is talking with us like I am talking."

Jarallah said the haemorrhage was "limited and we did not perform any surgery... and do not expect that there will be any surgery in London. All the indications are assuring."

Sheikh Jaber has been in power in Kuwait, an OPEC member state that controls almost 10 percent of the world's oil reserves, since 1978. He was exiled to Saudi Arabia in August 1990 when Iraqi troops invaded and occupied the country for seven months.

The emir has been in good health in recent years though he was rushed to a local hospital in 1985 after a failed assassination attempt.

His brother, Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, has been seen in recent years as the man running the day-to-day affairs of the small country of 2.2 million people, 65 percent of whom are from overseas.

The emir is credited with making pro-Western Kuwait a world financial force.

Kuwait's investments, which include key stakes in some of the world's largest firms, now total over $80 billion after dropping to $35 billion as Kuwait partly paid for the U.S.-led 1991 Gulf War against Iraq and related reconstruction costs.

The state's main investment arm, Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), one of the emir's ventures, runs a portfolio worth over $60 billion. It was valued at over $100 billion before the Iraqi invasion.