Sharon leaves intensive care unit

The medical centre near Tel Aviv, where he has been treated since May, said Mr Sharon returned to the respiratory ward after treatment for the infection.

Mr Sharon, 78, has remained in a coma since suffering a major stroke in January and undergoing brain surgery.

He was succeeded as PM by Ehud Olmert, who narrowly won elections in March.

His condition has fluctuated throughout the year.

For several months Mr Sharon was treated by the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, where he was taken for emergency treatment in January.

After several operations on his brain, he was moved from Hadassah hospital in May to a specialist centre for long-term care.

He subsequently developed pneumonia, and has also undergone kidney dialysis.

Lengthy career

Mr Sharon was first elected to the Knesset in 1973 and held a number of cabinet positions before he became prime minister in 2001.

POLITICAL CAREER

• 1973: Elected Knesset member for Likud
• 1975-77: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's special security adviser
• 1977-81: Minister of Agriculture
• 1981-83: Minister of Defence
• 1984-90: Minister of Trade and Industry
• 1990-92: Minister of Construction and Housing
• 1996-98: Minister of National Infrastructure
• 1998-99: Foreign Minister
• 2001-2006: Prime Minister
• 2005: Left Likud to found Kadima

Profile: Ariel Sharon

A former army commander, as defence minister he masterminded Israel's disastrous invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

He served as housing minister in the early 1990s, expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But while prime minister, he went on to push through Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank, despite opposition from within his right-wing Likud party.

He also presided over the building of the controversial West Bank barrier.

Amid growing dissent, Mr Sharon left Likud in November last year to found a new party, Kadima (Forward), which scored a narrow win in the March parliamentary election under Mr Olmert.