Incoming Greek finance minister in hospital: govt

Incoming Greek finance minister Vassilis Rapanos was admitted in hospital on Friday, the government said, with unconfirmed reports saying the 65-year-old senior banker had fainted.

The chairman of leading Greek lender National Bank, Rapanos was taken to a private hospital in Athens, a government spokesman said, hours before he was expected to take his oath of office.

"The hospital will issue a statement," the spokesman told AFP.

The state-run Athens News Agency said Rapanos had run a high fever while at his office at National Bank ahead of his swearing-in ceremony.

A former economics professor who served in the economy ministry when Greece joined the euro in 2001, Rapanos was named finance minister on Thursday in a conservative-led coalition seeking to revise the country's bailout terms.

Newly-elected Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was briefly in another Athens hospital Friday after being diagnosed with a retinal detachment.

He returned to his office according to state television, but will be admitted on Saturday to undergo an operation.

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