Hospital`s chief surgeon, Professor Ernst Bodner, disclosed that he had removed a length of Havel`s intestine around 30 cm (about 12 inches) long during a three and a half hour operation on Tuesday. However, Professor Norbert Mutz, head of the hospital`s intensive care unit, was much more upbeat about the prognosis for the former anti-communist dissident, who was taken ill while on holiday in Austria with his second wife Dagmar. "I spoke to the president for 45 minutes this morning. His condition is excellent now," Mutz said. "He feels fine. He is already reading. He is in surprisingly good condition." Dagmar Havel said she had given the president paracetamol to try to bring down his temperature after he fell ill on Sunday. He complained of stomach pains which gradually worsened. She feared he might have appendicitis and summoned medical help. "It was a well deserved holiday and we had looked forward to it. But fate decreed otherwise," she said. Havel married Dagmar Veskrnova, an actress, in January 1997, less than a year after the death from cancer of Olga, his wife of 32 years. Havel has struggled to recover from a lung cancer operation in December 1996. He nearly died of pneumonia and other complications after the 1996 surgery. In February he had another operation to close a hole left by a tracheotomy performed to aid his breathing. Doctors in Innsbruck say his current illness is unrelated to the other diseases. Asked about Havel`s general condition, Bodner replied: "After his lung disease, he is not in a good condition. That was one of the problems we had." But the former playwright was unlikely to suffer any recurrence of the intestinal problems. Havel was expected to remain in hospital in Innsbruck for 10 to 14 days. Another medical bulletin was due at 1500 GMT on Wednesday and a news conference was scheduled for Thursday morning. Havel`s doctor in Prague, Miroslav Cerbak, said the course of his illness had been favourable so far and the president had been following a debate on NATO membership in the Czech parliament. Havel vowed to get closer to the people, a tacit acknowledgment that the trappings of power had made him more remote. The man who made his name by writing had to resort to the pen to communicate with his wife hours after his surgery in Innsbruck. Describing her visit to Havel`s bedside in the early hours of Wednesday, Dagmar Havel said: "He could not speak because he had a tube in his airways. He wrote me messages on a piece of paper. They were messages of a very private nature."