President of Egypt, Husni Mubarak, 76, has cancelled a scheduled meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Quraya. Egypt?s head of intelligence, General Umar Suleiman will meet Ouraya instead, along with Usama al-Baz, the presidential adviser. A Palestinian official, who asked to remain anonymous, said the meeting with Mubarak had been cancelled.

Yesterday, a London-based Islamist group said Mubarak was in hospital. Within hours state TV showed him talking to his Defence Minister ? the TV station gave the impression that the footage was live. The rumour from London had said that Mubarak was in a critical condition.

The state TV went on to say that another meeting had taken place between Mubarak and an American CIA director, George Tenet. However, their get-together was not shown visually.

According to al-Magreze Centre for Historical Studies, Mubarak?s health started to deteriorate on Tuesday this week.

Last November a speech had to be halted when Mubarak was taken ill. He came back to finish the speech looking noticeably pale and speaking with a hoarse voice. Officials said he had a bad case of flu.