The hospital caring for Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon said early today that there was no change in his condition overnight, and doctors planned to bring him out of a medically induced coma.

A SCAN of Ariel Sharon's brain showed improvement yesterday, and doctors will start bringing the Israeli prime minister out of his medically induced coma today, a hospital official said.

Doctors are to decide today when to begin bringing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon out of a medically-induced coma more than three days after he suffered a massive stroke – a key to assessing how much brain damage he has suffered.