Gabon's prime minister flew to Spain on Monday in an attempt to quash rumors that the Gabonese president had died at a hospital there.
At the hospital where the president is being treated, Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong told reporters: "The President Omar Bongo Ondimba is alive and well."
Ndong said he and other government officials met with Bongo on Monday morning and with doctors who are treating him. He said the president had been admitted to the clinic for a complete medical checkup. No explanation was given for why Bongo did not appear at the news conference himself.
Ndong said he had given instructions for Gabon to protest to the French government over the news reports that the president had died. He said those reports "only aim to instill doubt in the spirit of the Gabonese people."
The prime minister did not take questions from reporters.
Several French media outlets reported Sunday that Bongo had died over the weekend at the Quiron Clinic in Barcelona. Bongo was admitted to the clinic late last month and Spain's Foreign Ministry confirmed that Bongo was seriously ill.
Gabonese officials initially denied that he was at the hospital and then reluctantly confirmed, but stressed that he was only there for a checkup. Gabonese officials did not explain why the checkup has lasted several weeks.
Bongo's condition could not be immediately confirmed Monday. A Spanish Foreign ministry official said he could not deny or confirm reports of the president's death.
The French Foreign Ministry has denied being the source of reports that Bongo had died on TV station France 24, as well as several other French media houses.
The 73-year-old Bongo has been in power since 1967. He is a throwback to an era when Africa was ruled by "Big Men" who came to power and never let go. He has been the president for so long that most of the country's 1.5 million people have only known him as president.
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Associated Press writers Daniel Woolls in Madrid, Matthieu Wintrebert in Paris and Rukmini Callimachi in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.
