Ex-Mongolia PM critical after car crash

BEIJING, July 13 (Reuters) A former prime minister of Mongolia was in critical condition in hospital today after a car crash in which media said the driver was killed.

The accident, which comes at an unsettled time in Mongolian politics, happened late on Tuesday near the city of Kharkhorin, about 400 km west of the capital Ulan Bator, when a motorcycle ran across the path of Elbegdorj's car, local media said.

''He has very serious injuries and his condition remains critical,'' a hospital spokesman told Reuters.

''The treatment appears to have had some positive effect on his condition in the past three days. But his injuries are very serious and we fear for further haemorrhage-related damage.'' Elbegdorj, 44, is the head of the opposition Democratic Party, which only a few days before the accident demanded the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party cabinet step down due to overspending of the state budget.

Elbegdorj, prime minister until he was forced to step down by the MPRP, led a national investigation into bribery and corruption that ended with one leading MPRP politician receiving a jail sentence for corruption.

He was one of the leading figures of a peaceful democratic revolution in 1990 that ended nearly three-quarters of a century of communist rule.

REUTERS NC BD1542