French President Jacques Chirac is well and remains on course to leave hospital this week after treatment for a blood vessel problem affecting his vision, Reuters quoted the governmental officials as saying on Thursday. Chirac, 72, cancelled appointments for a week after being rushed to hospital on Sept. 2 following what officials described as a "vascular accident" affecting his vision and a migraine. "I spoke to him by phone. The news is very good," Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said during a visit to a school in Beauvais, north of Paris. "He can't wait to leave." Government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said Chirac would be back in the Elysee presidential palace by the end of the week. "The president is very well ... The French people will see him very shortly," Cope told Europe 1 radio. He gave no details of the president's plans for travel or scheduled meetings, which include a trip to a United Nations summit in New York next week. Doctors said on Monday Chirac had suffered a haematoma, which is a localised collection of blood, usually clotted, due to a break in the wall of a blood vessel. But details of his specific condition have remained vague, causing opposition politicians to denounce the air of secrecy surrounding presidential illnesses. --more 1514 Local Time 1214 GMT
