BERLIN/CAIRO: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was shown on television on Tuesday sitting and chatting to doctors at a German hospital, the first pictures of him since he had surgery 10 days ago.

Mubarak, 81, who has ruled Egypt for almost three decades, had surgery on March 6 and the treatment has caused rumors about the seriousness of his condition, weighing on Egyptian market share prices in recent days.

Traders had said investors would remain nervous until images of the president were broadcast. The Egyptian stock market rebounded 1.8 percent on Tuesday before TV showed the pictures but had plunged 6.1 percent the two previous sessions.

"I met with President Mubarak early this morning as part of our daily routine medical check up. He was upbeat and in very good spirits as usual," Dr. Markus Buechler of Heidelberg University Hospital said in a televised statement.

"His resolve and will power that we witnessed all last week was very obvious this morning as he looks forward to returning to normal activities," he said, adding that no further daily laboratory tests were required.

Mubarak was shown sitting in a chair wearing a dark robe and talking to doctors, gesturing with his arms.

Mubarak has no clear successor, which unnerves Egyptian and foreign investors because it is not clear who could follow in power and whether a successor would pursue the same economic policies of his cabinet that have been praised by executives.

Despite worries about the continuation of policy, most investors and analysts expect a relatively smooth hand over in any transition with little likelihood of significant unrest.

Mubarak has not said whether he will run again for a sixth six-year term in the 2011 presidential election. Many Egyptians believe that if he does not, he will try to hand power to his politician son, Gamal, 46. Both Mubaraks deny any such plan.

Mubarak, who came to power in 1981, handed powers temporarily to his prime minister, Ahmed Nazif, before the operation