King Fahd's Pneumonia Improving

Chest X-rays taken Sunday showed that King Fahd is recovering from the pneumonia for which he was hospitalized, a medical official said.

The king's condition was "stable and improving" and his temperature is back to normal but he remains in intensive care, said the official at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Asked when the king would be released, the official said, "That is for his doctors to decide."

Fahd was admitted to the hospital on Friday for unspecified medical tests. Concerned Saudis have closely followed health updates on the king, believed to be 82, who brought the oil-rich kingdom closer to the United States during more than two decades as monarch.

Turki Awad, a 40-year-old Defense Ministry employee, said he was reassured by Sunday's improvements.

"We're not worried because the king has a very good medical team treating him," Awad said. "We hope he will be back home soon."

Saudi newspapers reported the king's health on their front pages, quoting a statement issued Saturday by the royal court that said medical tests had shown Fahd's condition was "stable and reassuring."

Fahd, king since 1982, suffered a debilitating stroke in 1995 that confined him mainly to a figurehead role. His half brother, Crown Prince Abdullah, has been Saudi Arabia's de facto leader since then and is expected to become king if Fahd dies. Both are sons of the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, King Abdul-Aziz.

Saudi Arabia's strategic importance as the nation with the world's largest oil reserves and the home of Islam's two holiest shrines means even a stable succession could affect world markets and have widespread political fallout.

The Saudi stock market tumbled 5 percent earlier in the week amid reports of Fahd's deteriorating health. His hospitalization Friday helped push crude oil futures to near US$52 a barrel ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend in the United States, the start of the American summer driving season.

During his rule, Fahd brought the kingdom closer to the United States. His most significant action was a step that enraged many Islamic extremists — allowing the basing of U.S. troops on Saudi soil after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born al Qaeda leader, cited the U.S. troops' presence as a main provocation for launching the Sept. 11 attacks and a wave of violence inside the kingdom.

The U.S. military withdrew all its combat forces from Saudi Arabia in 2003 after major combat operations in Iraq were declared over. But a small military contingent stayed behind in a training and advisory role to Saudi armed forces.

The king tried to balance overtures toward the West with concessions to hard-liners, hoping to boost his Islamic credentials. He had himself named the custodian of Islam's two holiest sites, in the western Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina.

Fahd suffered short-term memory loss and an inability to concentrate for long stretches after his stroke in 1995. With the portly, goateed Fahd largely a figurehead since then, it has been Abdullah who has overseen the kingdom's crackdown on militants.

Abdullah tried to rebuild relations with the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks; 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have been talking in recent months about organizing joint training exercises for U.S. and Saudi ground combat forces on Saudi territory.