Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who turns 90 this week, has travelled to Singapore for an eye operation.
Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba told The Herald newspaper that the veteran leader went to Singapore on Monday to have cataract surgery on his left eye.
"He has done the right eye (operation) and now he is going for the second one. This was a date set well before last year which the president has to honour," Charamba was quoted as saying.
He added that Mugabe, whose birthday is on Friday, was expected back in the country in time for the celebrations on Sunday.
Mugabe's health has been the subject of much speculation in recent years as he regularly travels to Singapore for medical check-ups.
The president, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, previously underwent cataract surgery in the city state in 2011.
Another visit in July 2012 sparked further rumours about his health, with media reports suggesting he was being treated for cancer.
A US diplomatic cable from 2008, leaked in 2011 by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, quoted Mugabe's close ally and former central bank chief Gideon Gono as telling former US ambassador Christopher Dell that Mugabe had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The Far East has become a destination of choice for Mugabe's health care after the European Union in 2002 imposed sanctions on his government.
On Monday, the EU said it had lifted a visa ban and assets freeze against members of the Zimbabwe's ruling elite with the exception of Mugabe and his wife, Grace.
