French President Jacques Chirac has been hospitalized for several days after sustaining a blood vessel problem in his eye, but is already eager to leave, the prime minister said. Chirac, 72, was alert and consulting with advisers after being taken Friday evening to a Paris military hospital, but officials said he was canceling or delaying several appointments this week. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, after visiting Chirac for about an hour Saturday at the walled Val-de-Grace hospital, said he had found the president in "good form." "He can't wait to leave," Villepin said in a brief statement to reporters afterward, adding that doctors had urged Chirac to remain in hospital for several days, according to a report of The Associated Press.
