Angola president back home after health rumours

LUANDA, Apr 28 (Reuters) Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has returned home after a vacation in Brazil, state-run news agency Angop reported today, ending a trip that fuelled speculation about the longtime leader's health.

Western diplomats in Luanda had said they heard unconfirmed rumours of new medical problems for the 64-year-old Dos Santos, who was admitted to a Rio de Janeiro clinic in March after suffering an allergic reaction while undergoing medical treatment for a lesion on his leg.

Over the past month Dos Santos has spent more time in Brazil than in Angola, leading to speculation in the country's independent press about his health and reopening longstanding discussion over a possible successor.

Last week presidential spokesman Victor Carvalho said Dos Santos was simply on a two-week holiday and was in good shape.

''The president's health is fine,'' he told Reuters.

The health rumours about Dos Santos, known to have had medical problems in the past, come amid hints elections expected this year might be delayed. The polls would be war-weary Angolans' first chance to vote since 1992.

The rumours also have raised concerns about a possible power vacuum in Angola, which Dos Santos has led since 1979, four years after its independence from Portugal.

Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's second largest oil producer after Nigeria and a major supplier of crude to both the United States and China.

REUTERS CH HS1528