REYKJAVIK: Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel collapsed at a Nato foreign ministersÕ meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, yesterday and was taken away on a stretcher by ambulance to hospital, eyewitnesses said.
Belgian spokesman Koen Vervaeke said the burly, outspoken Michel had been feeling unwell before the meeting began but there was no cause for alarm. ÒThere is no problem,Ó Vervaeke said.
Michel, who is deputy prime minister in Prime Minister Guy VerhofstadtÕs coalition government, keeled over on his way to join fellow ministers on a stage in the conference centre for a photo session.
He briefly got up but fell a second time and lay motionless behind a dais as concerned aides and ministers gathered around.
The photo session continued with ministers looking glum as Michel lay offstage waiting for medical attention. A doctor eventually arrived and medics put the minister on a stretcher. He was taken, fully conscious, to Reykjavik University Hospital for a precautionary check-up, a Belgian official said.
MichelÕs personal spokesman, Jean-Philippe Rousseau, said the most likely cause was exhaustion because the minister had been travelling a lot.
Ð Reuters