CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will return to Egypt on Saturday following gallbladder surgery in Germany this month, a government minister told Reuters late on Friday.

Mubarak is to arrive on Saturday afternoon to the resort town of Sharm El Sheikh, Information Minister Anas el-Feki said in a text message exchange. The president's return comes three weeks after doctors in Germany removed his gallbladder.

Mubarak's extended absence from the country for medical reasons hit the stock market and reminded Egyptians that the president, in power for almost three decades, has not named a successor.

While his son Gamal is widely touted as a contender, both father and son deny plans to install him.

Other names mooted include former nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who in his first public appearance since returning to Egypt last month was meet by supporters chanting "Your are our hope" at Friday prayers.

At a news conference two days before his surgery, Mubarak tartly dismissed any suggestion ElBaradei was a national hero.

State news agency MENA said Mubarak would be received by government ministers and leaders of the armed forces and police.

The early edition of Saturday's al-Gomhuria newspaper said the medical team treating Mubarak was scheduled to hold a news conference on Saturday to announce its final report and to discharge him.

But a hospital spokeswoman could not confirm Mubarak was leaving and had no information about any news conference. The hospital has a policy of patient confidentiality, she said.

The 81-year-old president had benign tissue removed during the operation conducted at Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany on March 6.

Mubarak has not said whether he plans to run for a sixth six-year term in a presidential election due in 2011.

Mubarak handed presidential powers to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif just before the operation, and has not yet officially taken them back, although he was shown on television speaking on the telephone with foreign leaders and local officials while in hospital.

Egypt's stock market fell sharply in the days after the president's operation, before steadying when images of him sitting and chatting with doctors were broadcast on March 16.