MOSCOW AP President Boris Yeltsin is feeling better but is still spending part of the day in a hospital bed as he continues to be treated for pneumonia officials said Tuesday. A Kremlin spokesman said the president was doing limited paperwork and there were no plans for any meetings or visitors. He did not say how much longer Yeltsin would remain in the government hospital where he has been for 10 days. Yeltsin's first deputy chief of staff Oleg Sysuyev said Tuesday that the president is expected to return to work at the Kremlin ``in the nearest time.'' ``Doctors are having trouble keeping the president in the hospital'' Sysuyev said at a news conference. The 67-year-old leader is known as a restless patient who sometimes ignores the advice of his doctors. Dr. Renat Akchurin who conducted Yeltsin's heart bypass surgery two years ago said the president's repeated illnesses may be due to a weakened immune system. Akchurin said that he has not examined Yeltsin for eight months but said heart problems appeared unlikely according to an interview with the weekly Argumenty i Fakty cited by the Interfax news agency. He also dismissed speculation that Yeltsin's heart surgery had affected his brain. Yeltsin's spokesman Dmitry Yakushkin insisted that the president had no problems remembering anything and was always alert. Yeltsin ``is unhappy about being sick he is not submitting to his illness'' Yakushkin said in an interview with the weekly Sobesednik also cited by Interfax. ``It's interesting though not always easy to talk to the president'' Yakushkin said calling Yeltsin ``quite an emotional person.'' Yeltsin met his chief-of-staff Valentin Yumashev in the hospital Monday and was briefed on government and national affairs. On Tuesday the president spoke by telephone with Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov to discuss the agenda of the premier's talks with International Monetary Fund chief Michel Camdessus who arrived in Moscow later on Tuesday. Russian television showed brief footage of Yeltsin dressed in a white shirt and dark cardigan and looking pale listening intently to his aide and nodding periodically. Like most footage of Yeltsin released in recent weeks Monday's tape didn't contain any sound of the president speaking. Yeltsin's repeated illnesses and his infrequent public appearances have raised concerns about his ability to lead the country now mired in its worst economic crisis since the 1991 Soviet collapse through the end of his term in mid-2000. Sysuyev reiterated Tuesday that Yeltsin will concentrate on political matters leaving day-to-day management of economic matters to Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov. ``You shouldn't think that the president and his office aren't taking part and controlling the economic developments such as preparing next year's budget and tax reform'' he said. Yeltsin has remained out of public view throughout the latest economic crisis that hit in mid-August further eroding his sagging popularity. ``It's known that the president now doesn't have sufficiently high popularity to put it mildly'' Sysuyev said according to the Interfax news agency. He insisted however that the president continues to play a stabilizing role in Russian society blunting antagonism between different political forces. adc APW19981201.0696.txt.body.html APW19981201.0954.txt.body.html