JAKARTA - FORMER President Suharto, Indonesia's leader for more than three decades, remains in critical condition but has improved slightly overnight, according to a member of his medical team.

Suharto, 86, was rushed to hospital last week suffering from anaemia and low blood pressure due to heart, lung and kidney problems.

His health deteriorated on Tuesday, as doctors tried to avert multiple organ failure.

'His heart isn't strong enough to pump blood.'

Suharto was forced to resign in 1998 in the face of a tumultuous pro-democracy movement and economic crisis.

While his political influence has faded since then, he and his family remain powerful and retain close ties to the military.

Attempts by subsequent governments to prosecute Suharto for graft have failed so far.

But despite his regime's corruption and human rights abuses, some Indonesians still look back with nostalgia at the Suharto era, when Indonesia was one of Asia's tiger economies, and refer to him fondly as the 'Father of Development'.

'I'm sad to hear about his condition and I think many people are sad too,' said Mr Karjono, 38, a food vendor who has worked for more than 10 years near Suharto's modest, green-painted house in a leafy Jakarta neighbourhood.

'I don't hate him but I'm not a big fan either, but many people will remember the better times when he was president. Now everything is expensive, including cooking oil and fuel,' he said.

'Jobs are hard to find and many people are homeless and living in the street.'

Family Gathering
All six of Suharto's children, and almost all of his sons-in-law, daughters-in-law and grandchildren were with him at the hospital on Tuesday, indicating the seriousness of his condition.

Mr Soebiandono said that doctors would resume giving him blood transfusions and haemodialysis to remove excess liquid from his body, but would wait for his condition to stabilise before installing a pacemaker.

The former leader, who rarely appears in public, has suffered from various ailments in recent years, including intestinal bleeding and strokes.

Suharto rose to power after he led the military in 1965 against what was officially called an attempted communist coup.

Whether that was true - and Suharto's role in the events remains controversial - it was followed by an anti-communist purge in which as many as 500,000 people were killed.

Critics say he and his family amassed billions during the decades that followed, but the former president and members of his family deny any wrongdoing.

Suharto was previously charged with graft but escaped prosecution when he was deemed too ill to stand trial. He and his family were still involved in a couple of high-profile court cases.

The sudden deterioration in his health over the weekend prompted some senior politicians and one of Suharto's daughters to call for legal proceedings against him to be dropped.

But the attorney-general said on Monday his office would press ahead with a civil case against Suharto.

Despite Suharto's humiliating ouster in 1998 and the subsequent attempts to prosecute him for corruption, members of Indonesia's political and business elite flocked to his bedside to pay their respects, a mark of his lingering influence.

(Additional reporting by Ahmad Pathoni; Editing by Sara Webb and Alex Richardson) REUTERS