Egypt President Hosni Mubarak to have gall bladder operation

Cairo: Egypt's state-owned news agency reported that President Hosni Mubarak is going to have a gall ladder operation in Germany and has temporarily handed over power to the prime minister.

Mena reported that the 81-year-old leader will have the operation on Saturday after being diagnosed as having "severe inflammation of his gall ladder" after tests at a hospital in Heidelberg.

It reported that  Mubarak has decreed that Prime Minister Ahmad Nadeef will exercise all presidential powers while he is out of the country.