41.   The two met at the Central Clinical Hospital, where the ailing president has been staying since mid-September.

42.   Then, more softly, the ailing president said that he did not return to Zaire to look after his own interests.

43.   Yeltsin spoke by telephone with the German leader, his friend and most ardent supporter in Europe, who visited the ailing president a week ago.

44.   He cited previous cases of ailing presidents holding onto power, such as the late Francois Mitterrand in France and Franklin Roosevelt in the United States.

45.   However, though he is an opponent of the ailing president, the rebels earlier scoffed at the news that he was expected to be nominated.

46.   All have the ear of the ailing Russian president, while Lebed and Chernomyrdin are considered rivals if not adversaries in the undeclared race to succeed Yeltsin.

47.   But on Sunday aides said the ailing president had put off his planned return to his homeland.

48.   Chretien was speaking after meeting here with Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko, the ailing Zairean president who is convalescing after an operation for cancer.

49.   The two men held a first one-to-one meeting immediately after the ailing French president arrived in Bonn almost an hour behind schedule.

50.   The Zairean government and its ailing president, Mobutu Sese Seko, have already backed the resolution.