Mubarak 'getting cancer treatment in Saudi Arabia'

CAIRO, Mar 02, 2011 (AFP): Toppled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is receiving medical treatment for cancer in Saudi Arabia, according to a report in the state-owned Al-Akhbar newspaper on Wednesday.

"Mubarak is currently in a military base in the city of Tabuk and is receiving treatment for colon and pancreatic cancer," the report said, citing "informed sources."

"He is undergoing chemotherapy every five days," it said.

After he resigned on February 11 and handed power to a military council, Mubarak, 82, left for the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he had regularly hosted foreign guests.

Al-Akhbar reported that Mubarak left for the city in northwest Saudi Arabia just days after his resignation.

Sources told the paper Mubarak's wife Suzanne and his two sons Alaa and Gamal -- long considered his father's possible successor -- were also living on the Tabuk military base.

There was no official confirmation Mubarak had gone to Saudi but there have been rumours for days that he had left the country.

In recent years Mubarak's health was a closely guarded secret, with rumours on his health inevitably sparking debates about who would become Egypt's next president.

In March last year Mubarak spent three weeks in Germany after an operation to have his gall bladder removed, amid widespread rumours he was suffering from cancer.

Egyptian authorities on Monday slapped a travel ban on Mubarak and his family and also imposed a freeze on their assets.

Nationwide protests that erupted on January 25 left at least 384 dead, more than 6,000 injured and scores detained.