The new movement came one day after Sharon moved his right hand and right leg slightly responding to pain stimulation during the process of gradually bringing him out of a medically induced coma by doctors at Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital, Israel Radio said.

The movement of the left side was indicative since damage to Sharon's brain is believed to be concentrated on those areas which control the left side of his body.

The doctors decided on Monday to reduce the dosage of sedation after reviewing Sharon's CT scan on his brain.

Terming his movement as a "significant improvement", Hadassah Director Shlomo Mor-Yosef said on Monday that Sharon still remained in serious condition.

The director also cautioned that it would be days before the doctors could assess the extent of damage done to Sharon's functioning by his massive stroke last Wednesday.

Medical consensus was that even if Sharon survived the massive stroke, he could hardly return to Israeli politics, which he helped shape after withdrawing troops and some 8,500 settlers from all Gaza in September and ending Israel's 38 years of occupation there.

Sharon's death or incapacitation will cast uncertainty over the prospects for his newly founded Kadima party in the March 28 elections, which he is poised to win as head of the centrist party.

His bowing out of politics will also halt peace momentum raised by Israel's land concession, which is key to the Palestinian demand for a viable and independent state.

Before his hospitalization, Sharon intended to concede more occupied land but vowed at the same time to hold on to larger settlement blocs in the West Bank.