20091209

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua remains in hospital in Saudi Arabia and is responding to treatment for a heart condition, but only his doctors will decide when he returns home, the government said on Wednesday.

The 58-year-old leader was flown to a clinic in Jeddah more than two weeks ago after complaining of chest pains and has been diagnosed with acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane around the heart that can restrict normal beating.

"It is only the doctors that can determine when Mr President will be back, but I can confirm to you that the President is still in the hospital and responding to treatment," Information Minister Dora Akunyili told reporters in the capital Abuja.

Yar'Adua's stay in a clinic in the Red Sea port is the latest in a series of overseas medical trips which have raised concern about his fitness to govern Africa's most populous nation. He has in the past visited Saudi Arabia and Germany to treat a chronic kidney problem.

Nigeria's cabinet unanimously agreed a week ago that there were no grounds on which to seek the president's resignation, rejecting calls for him to quit or let a panel of doctors determine whether he is fit to govern.

The cabinet came out strongly backing Yar'Adua after at least nine Nigerian newspaper front pages carried a statement reportedly signed by more than 50 public figures calling on him to resign or allow a medical panel to assess his health.

The opposition Action Congress party described the cabinet's decision as "unprincipled, self-serving and predictable" and said its assertion that government was functioning properly in Yar'Adua's absence was "the biggest joke of the year".