Security has been tightened around ex-football star Diego Maradona after a man posing as a doctor tried to sell him cocaine in his hospital room.

Doctors said the man, dressed in a white smock and wearing a stethoscope, slipped into the room where the former Argentina captain is being treated for drug abuse.

The drug dealer fled before he could be questioned.

Maradona is being treated for hypertension and an irregular heartbeat at the Sacred Heart Clinic in Buenos Aires after he fell ill during a family holiday in Uruguay last week.

Doctors said the 39 year-old self-confessed cocaine addict had taken so many drugs that his heart rate was reduced to 38% of capacity.

Speaking on Friday in his first interview since his collapse, Maradona admitted he was "half dead" after overdosing on cocaine.

He issued a stern warning to young people to stay away from drugs, and vowed to fight his addiction.

"I don't want to leave this world - I'm going to fight to continue living as I want to spend my later years with my kids" he said.

"I will do everything to get out of this mess".

His heartbeat has improved after regular doses of sedatives but doctors warn his health depends on staying away from drugs and alcohol.

He has previously ignored pleas from his doctors to seek help for his addictions, but on Friday he confirmed that contact has now been made with rehab centres in Cuba and Canada.

He said he would be "enchanted" to go to Cuba, where the Quinque-Cocal drug treatment centre has offered to treat the star.

Canada may bar him due to a suspended jail sentence he was given in 1998 for shooting at a group of journalists with an air rifle.

Years of recovery

Media reports on the interview, broadcast on the local Fox Sports cable TV channel, said Maradona had lost some weight and at times seemed to speak with difficulty.

He said he had never felt so ill as when he was admitted to hospital in Uruguay.

He said he had assured his daughters Dalma and Gianina that he was better, but added that "when you are talking about the heart it is difficult to be certain".

He praised his agent Guillermo Coppola, who he said "had saved his life".

Mr Coppola was charged on Tuesday with giving false evidence to the magistrate in Uruguay investigating allegations of Maradona's cocaine use.

Specialists say it could take Maradona years to truly kick his addictions.

"Psychologically it is going to take him years to recover" said Marina Alvarez Noble, a psychologist specialising in the treatment of drug addicts.

Career in decline

During his playing career, Maradona was twice banned from international competition after testing positive for drug use.

His career went into decline in 1991 when he was suspended for 15 months following a positive test for cocaine while playing for Napoli in Italy.

He was sent home from the 1994 World Cup in the US after failing a drug test for ephedrine, and was later banned for 15 months.

He retired in 1997 after failing another drugs test in Argentina.