Peres caught 'napping'

2005-01-31 11:44

Jerusalem - Israel's usually indefatigable deputy prime minister, Shimon Peres, dozed off for a full 15 minutes during the weekly cabinet meeting, some of his less than discreet colleagues said on Monday.

"His eyes were well and truly closed and he went to sleep for a quarter of an hour," one minister told the Yediot Aharonot daily on condition of anonymity.

The 81-year-old Nobel peace prize winner, who joined a new Israeli coalition government earlier this month, had only just returned to Jerusalem from the World Economic Forum in Davos for Sunday morning's meeting.

Even though colleagues banged their glasses on the table and spoke in raised tones, all attempts to rouse him failed, the paper said.

Peres's office however denied that the centre-left Labour party's leader had drifted off, saying in a statement: "It is well known that Mr Peres closes his eyes in order to concentrate and that's all that happened."

- AFP