2010-04-14
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who had gallbladder surgery in Germany last month, will hold a cabinet meeting on Thursday, his first since he returned to Egypt, the cabinet spokesman said.

"President Mubarak will host the cabinet meeting tomorrow morning in Sharm El Sheikh, God willing," Magdy Rady told Reuters. Mubarak has been recovering in the Red Sea resort since returning to Egypt on March 27.

Mubarak, 81, handed over presidential powers to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif just before his operation and reassumed them upon his return to Egypt.

He has not made a public appearance since his longest absence in almost three decades in power.

Egypt's stock market fell sharply in the days after the president's operation on March 6, before steadying when images of him sitting and chatting with doctors were broadcast on state television.

The president's absence has also fuelled uncertainty about who will lead Egypt after Mubarak, who has never named a successor and has not said whether he plans to run for a sixth six-year term in a presidential election due in 2011.

Mubarak's 46-year-old son Gamal has been widely seen as being groomed to succeed him, a plan that both father and son deny.

U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei, 67, has also surfaced as a possible presidential candidate, although the conditions he has set for running, which include changes to the constitution, are unlikely to be met.