WHILE his country is convulsed by protests and bloodshed, Myanmar's ailing prime minister remains under treatment at a Singapore hospital, an embassy staffer said on Friday.

Soe Win, the suspected mastermind of a deadly attack on opposition forces in Myanmar four years ago, has been at the Singapore General Hospital for three to four months, said the staffer.

Asked about the prime minister's condition, the staffer said, 'According to the doctors, we cannot meet with him.'

Attempts by AFP to locate Soe Win at the hospital were unsuccessful.

But the embassy staffer said: 'He is well. He is on recovery.'

Although Soe Win wields little power in the regime, his health problems highlight the ageing nature of the junta which rules Myanmar.

The junta leader, Senior General Than Shwe, 73, also visited Singapore in January for what an embassy official said were medical checks.

Despite 'a lot of speculation' about the leader's health he was 'very much OK' after the checkup at the Singapore General Hospital, the official said.

Myanmar officials rarely speak on the record for fear of repercussions by the junta, which has drawn international condemnation for a two-day crackdown on mass protests that left at least 13 people dead and hundreds more arrested.

Four years ago the death toll was even higher, dissidents said, after an attack allegedly plotted by Soe Win on the motorcade of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2003.

The clash between supporters of her National League for Democracy and a pro-junta group left up to 80 people dead, according to dissidents. The government said four people were killed and 50 injured.

Soe Win, a lieutenant general, is thought to be aged about 58. He replaced the disgraced Khin Nyunt as prime minister in Oct 2004, following his swift rise in the leadership after allegedly plotting the attack.

Soe Win, a tall and stern man, is considered to be among the leadership hardliners.

The Singapore General Hospital computer lists several patients by the name 'Soe Win', including a foreigner on the VIP ward.

But when an AFP reporter visited the four-bed VIP room where he was listed as staying, a nurse said Soe Win was not there.

A board showed the names of patients in the room, but all were Chinese. One bed was sealed off with a curtain.

Another hospital worker said the last record of Soe Win staying there was in July.

Soe Win has a twin brother, and dissident sources said recently that the twin had died.

In May, government sources in Myanmar said Soe Win had returned to Singapore for medical treatment - just 10 days after going back to Myanmar following at least seven weeks in the Singapore hospital.

Authorities insisted then that Soe Win was in good health and was merely in Singapore for medical checks. Dissidents and exiles in Thailand believe he is suffering from leukaemia.

Analysts have said that even if Soe Win became too ill to work or were replaced, it would have little effect on the government because all real power lies with Than Shwe and his loyal deputies in the military junta.

Than Shwe has ruled Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, since 1992, but Thailand-based analysts said earlier that his health was weakening and he was considering handing more power to his trusted protege, Shwe Mann.

Shwe Mann, the military's joint chief of staff, has long been seen as the likely successor to Than Shwe. -- AFP