Jakarta - Indonesia's ailing former president Suharto was showing signs of further improvement Monday, but he was still in intensive care, doctors said. "The condition of Bapak (Father) Suharto is showing much progress," Dr Mardjo Subiandono, the head of Suharto's team of doctors, told a press conference.
While the former leader was still weak since being admitted Friday to Pertamina Hospital after suffering from anaemia and low blood pressure, his blood pressure was stable and his appetite much improved, Subiandono said.
An additional blood transfusion was planned Monday to help improve the haemoglobin levels of the 86-year-old former dictator.
Subiandono did not say how long Suharto would have to stay in the hospital.
The former army general has been admitted to hospital numerous times since he stepped down nearly a decade ago, including to receive treatment for intestinal bleeding and strokes, which doctors have said left him brain-damaged and unable to speak coherently.
A number of top government officials - including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice-President Jusuf Kalla - have visited Suharto, who ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for 32 years before student-led pro-democracy protests forced him to step down in 1998.
Yudhoyono said the government would give Suharto the finest medical attention available.
Suharto, who rarely appears in public and has lived in seclusion in Jakarta's Menteng neighbourhood since he stepped down, has been charged with corruption and also faces numerous allegations of human rights abuses during his more than two decades of rule.
With the continued deterioration of Suharto's health, it is unknown whether legal proceedings against the former dictator will proceed.
Leaders of Golkar, Suharto's former party, have asked the government to drop all legal cases against the ailing former leader.
"Since he has repeatedly fallen ill and been hospitalized several times, the legal process against Suharto should not be continued for humanitarian reasons," Golkar deputy chairman Agung Laksono said.
However, former president Abdurrahman Wahid, a pro-democracy activist when Suharto was in power, said the legal process against Suharto should continue.
"If the court has made a decision, it is up to us whether to forgive him or not, but the process should be continued," Wahid, better known by his nickname Gus Dur, was quoted as saying by the state-run Antara News Agency.
In May 2006, prosecutors closed a criminal case against Suharto, citing his deteriorating health.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said he would go ahead with a civil case against the former president despite his poor health conditions.
"The civil case process is still going on. The attorney general's office has been given the mandate by the government for this case. He (Suharto) has given his lawyers the mandate to handle this," Supanji told reporters.
"Although Suharto is sick, his lawyer is continuing on this case," he said, adding that as it is a civil case, even if Suharto died, it would still be continued against his family.
The government is currently seeking 1.4 billion dollars in damages and returned assets allegedly accrued through a charitable foundation Suharto chaired while in power.
In September, the United Nations and the World Bank announced that Suharto headed their list of the world's worst swindlers of state assets, along with the late Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Alberto Fujimori of Peru.
Last year the Indonesian Supreme Court overturned a lower court's decision and awarded the ex-dictator 1 trillion rupiah (106 million dollars) in damages in a libel suit he brought against the US-based Time magazine.
