RIYADH - Saudi Arabia's King Fahd remained in hospital for a third day Sunday with a lung ailment, preparing to undergo more medical tests as authorities in the OPEC kingpin sought to calm jitters about his health.
State-guided newspapers highlighted official statements stressing that the monarch, believed to be 84, was in "stable" condition.
All medical examinations conducted after Fahd was admitted to King Faisal Specialist Hospital Friday evening "proved that his health condition is stable and reassuring," a royal court statement said late Saturday.
Fahd, who has ruled the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom for more than two decades, would undergo "remaining tests at a later date," it said without giving a specific timetable.
No details were provided, but official sources have told AFP that King Fahd was suffering from a lung infection.
The daily Al-Riyadh gave prominent play to "telephone calls from leaders of Arab and friendly countries inquiring about the health of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques."
Saudi Arabia hosts Islam's two holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, and Fahd is known as their custodian.
The monarch has been frail since suffering a stroke a decade ago and has delegated the running of day-to-day affairs to his half-brother and likely successor, Crown Prince Abdullah.
Officials have insisted that Fahd is in good shape and dismissed reports that a state of alert has been declared in the vast kingdom, which has been battling a wave of violence by suspected Al-Qaeda militants for the past two years.
The situation on the streets of the capital remained normal Sunday as people went about their usual business.
"People don't expect anything abnormal to happen. So there was actually no need to take any extra security measure whatsoever," interior ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki told AFP.
"Life continues quietly," commented a doctor in his sixties who requested anonymity.
Referring to the terse official statements, he complained that the public knew very little about the state of the king's health.
But the mechanism of succession remains clear.
"It is all regulated by law," he said.
"Everything will take place smoothly. We never had a problem in the past," he added, recalling that the Saud dynasty has a long record in this field.
Since the creation of the kingdom in 1932, crown princes have automatically ascended to the throne after the deaths of monarchs.
"After Fahd, it will be Abdullah," insisted a young Saudi, who wore a cap copying that of US rapper Eminem.
But oil markets reacted nervously to the news from Saudi Arabia, which is currently pumping 9.5 million barrels per day and has declared readiness to hike production to meet surging global demand.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in July, climbed 84 cents to 51.85 dollars per barrel on the last day of trading Friday. In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude oil for July delivery gained 54 cents to 50.70 dollars.
Gulf analysts said Fahd's state of health would not affect Saudi oil policy, which had been marked by stability under Abdullah's command.
The official SPA news agency reported Sunday that Saudi Arabia and Russia, the world's two biggest oil producers, discussed increasing their output capacity to meet rising world demand.
The Saudi announcement was apparently meant to reassure anxious world markets.
Official sources told AFP late Friday that King Fahd was running a high temperature and suffering from a lung infection, necessitating a CT scan. But the sources insisted his condition was not alarming.
Medical sources also said he had a lung ailment, adding that the latest deterioration in the king's health started a week earlier with a serious flu.
The health of the king, who ascended to the throne in 1982 and is the eighth son of the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, first deteriorated in November 1995 when he suffered a stroke.
05/29/2005 14:43 GMT