King widow partially paralysed by stroke - doctor

ATLANTA - Coretta Scott King, the widow of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, was partially paralysed after suffering a stroke this week and may not fully recover, her doctor said.

King, 78, was taken to an Atlanta hospital on Tuesday after suffering a severe stroke that paralysed part of her right side and affected her ability to speak, said Dr. Maggie Mermin.

"She said a few words today and we're very encouraged by that," Mermin said at a press conference at Piedmont Hospital, where the civil rights matriarch is being treated. "I'm not certain she'll have a full recovery."

King is expected to remain in the hospital until at least next week.

Although she has curtailed her public appearances in recent months, King remains an icon in the black community for the role she played in the US civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

She continued to fight for equality after her husband was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee, by a sniper on April 4, 1968. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate died while supporting striking sanitation workers.

His widow quickly created a memorial in the Martin Luther King Jr Centre for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, with archives containing more than 2000 King speeches, a complex built around the King crypt and an eternal flame.

She also campaigned successfully for a federal holiday celebrating his birthday, conducted annual "King Week" observances, restaged the 1963 march on Washington during which King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, and made appearances promoting his philosophy of nonviolence.

In 1998, she broke 30 years of silence on the subject of her husband's assassination, saying she did not believe James Earl Ray, the man sentenced to 99 years in prison for King's slaying, acted alone.

King said she believed the assassination was the work of a high-level government conspiracy, as Ray contended, and pushed for the creation of a federal "truth" commission to investigate the matter.

Ray died in prison in 1998 at age 70.

In recent years, King has been active in the struggle to control the spread of Aids in the black community, urging it to be more tolerant of gays. She also has criticised US involvement in Iraq.

- REUTERS