Russian President Boris Yeltsin is to remain at the Barvikha sanatorium, his spokesman Sergey Yastrzhembskiy said on Thursday.

Interfax news agency quoted him as saying that the 10-12 days allowed by his doctors for Yeltsin to recover "have not yet passed".

Earlier, Yeltsin said he would be leaving the sanatorium on Friday and going back to work

Russian Public Television said Yeltsin had categorically rejected rumours that his stay in the sanatorium was connected with his heart illness.

" Indeed, I had a cold and there were fears that there could be some complications. A week is a normal length of time for flu-type illnesses," Yeltsin said in remarks broadcast by the television.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.  
 

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