Yeltsin ready for surgery

President Boris Yeltsin's condition is good enough for heart surgery at any time, doctors said in Moscow, but refused to say when it would be.

A doctors' statement released by the Kremlin said Mr Yeltsin's temperature, pulse and blood pressure were normal but gave no other information and no clues to when the bypass operation to improve the blood supply to his heart might take place.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church offered prayers for Mr Yeltsin in Kazan cathedral on Red Square.

"Heal the illnesses, the spiritual and corporeal ailments of the president of our Russian land, forgive him his transgressions, witting and unwitting, deliver him soon from his sick-bed and restore him to good health," Patriarch Alexiy said. Moscow - Reuter