Monaco's Prince Rainier in stable condition

PARIS - Prince Rainier of Monaco remains in intensive care after suffering lung, heart and kidney problems but his condition has not deteriorated, doctors said.

"Prince Rainier's condition has not shown any marked change," they said in a medical bulletin.

The doctors said in their last bulletin on Tuesday that they were cautious about the outlook for the 81-year-old prince's health.

Europe's longest-serving monarch has been in intensive care for more than a week and is receiving assistance with breathing. The doctors said the next bulletin would be published in the next 48 hours.

Rainier's frail condition was underscored by Monaco's decision to postpone a gathering of small European states' parliaments at short notice.

"In today's very painful circumstances ... and the lack of medical reassurances, the National Council (parliament) considered it preferable to postpone the meeting of the Parliaments of Small European States which was scheduled to take place in Monaco on March 31 and April 1," the Monaco parliament said in a statement dated March 29.

Representatives from San Marino, Malta, Cyprus, Andorra, Iceland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein had been due to attend.

The widower of Hollywood film star Grace Kelly, who died in a car crash in 1982, Rainier has reigned in Europe's last constitutional autocracy since 1949.

He led Monaco -- a 2.5 sq km territory tucked between the French town of Nice and the Italian border -- into an age of skyscrapers, international banking and business.

- REUTERS