Senior Israeli medical experts said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon can now be defined as in "avegetative state", local newspaper Ha'aretz reported Wednesday.

However, the experts stressed that the possibility of Sharon regaining consciousness cannot be ruled out and some even said that it is possible that Sharon will recover some of his physicaland mental functioning.

Based on reports from Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital where Sharon has been treated since the severe stroke on Jan. 4, "the implication is that Sharon is in a vegetative state," Dr. Avraham Lazri, a rehabilitation expert who is deputy hospital director and head of the brain injury department at the long-term care facility Reut, told Ha'aretz.

In addition, an intensive-care expert was quoted as saying that a patient after such a major stroke, who has been unconscious for so long and his condition remains serious and stable, is "most likely in a vegetative state."

A vegetative state is defined as one in which a patient has alow level of consciousness and seems to be unaware of his surroundings.

Such a state ranges in various degrees, including patients who breathe on their own with no help from a respirator. Patients maintain a sleep cycle and may exhibit spontaneous movements that are of no functional significance. A response to pain stimuli, as Sharon has reportedly exhibited, is consistent with a vegetative state.

"That is one of the things that distinguish a patient in avegetative state from a state of deep coma," said Dr. Lazri.Lazri said he has encountered patients in Sharon's condition who fully regained consciousness, but "the frequency is low." Sharon's age, medical history and the severity of his stroke are not in his favor, he said.

"The tendency in the world is to wait six months from the time of the stroke to say whether or not someone will fully regain consciousness," he added.

Hadassah hospital said on Tuesday that Sharon remains unconscious, is breathing spontaneously with the help of are spirator, and there has been no change in his condition, which is still termed "serious and stable."

The 77-year-old prime minister, who will turn 78 in February,is widely believed unlikely to return to the Israeli politicalstage.