Nigeria's ailing president returned home today after a three-month stay in a Saudi hospital but officials said his deputy will stay at the helm as the US voiced fears of fresh 'uncertainty'.

President Umaru Yar'Adua flew back to the capital Abuja unnanounced in the early hours of Wednesday, his plane met by a white ambulance.

A weekly cabinet meeting went ahead after a delay of several hours after it became clear that Yar'Adua would not be attending.

Nigeria's ambassador to Saudi Arabia said the 58-year-old flew home after a marked improvement in his condition, but it was several hours before officials in Abuja confirmed his return to the country.

Acting president Goodluck Jonathan will remain in charge while the president, treated for a serious heart condition, continues to recuperate, the president's spokesman Segun Adeniyi said. "After being discharged by the team of medical experts overseeing his treatment in Saudi Arabia, President Yar'Adua returned to the presidential villa, Abuja early this morning," he said. "While the President completes his recuperation, Vice President Jonathan will continue to oversee the affairs of state," he added.

Presidents have not met

The two leaders had yet to meet more than 12 hours after Yar'Adua's return, Information Minister Dora Akunyili told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

She said Jonathan had been briefed of Yar'Adua's return by presidential aides. Jonathan "hopes to see the wife of the president this evening and when he is eventually briefed by our president, he will call us again," she said.

The clandestine nature of the president's return - in the dead of night, after a 93 day absence - did little to reassure the United States about his state of health, Washington expressing concern his return could spark "renewed uncertainty" in the major oil exporter.

US is concerned

Recent reports "continue to suggest that President Umaru Yar'Adua's health remains fragile and that he may still be unable to fulfill the demands of his office," said Washington's top envoy to Africa, Johnnie Carson. 

"We hope that President Yar'Adua's return to Nigeria is not an effort by his senior advisors to upset Nigeria's stability and create renewed uncertainty in the democratic process," Carson said in a statement released by the US embassy in Lagos. "Nigeria needs a strong, healthy and effective leader to ensure the stability of the country and to manage Nigeria's many political, economic and security challenges."

"Nigeria is an extraordinarily important country and all of those in positions of responsibility should put the health of the president and the best interests of the country and people of Nigeria above personal ambition or gain."

The Nigerian Senate was due to vote later today on a proposed constitutional amendment to restrict the period a president can spend away from office and make it mandatory for him inform parliament each time he leaves the country.

Source: AFP