DEPOSED EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak is reportedly refusing treatment despite his health “deteriorating drastically,” an Egyptian security official has said.

Speaking to London-based Arabic newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, the official said Mubarak’s family had been refusing attempts to transfer him to receive treatment as they wish for him to die on Egyptian soil.

Last week, Mubarak fled from his palace in Cairo to the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh – just hours after vowing to stay on in power until the general election next September.

However, as the people rejoiced at the end of his 30-year rule, reports that he had fallen into a “full coma” emerged.

The former security official source said that Mubarak “regains consciousness rarely” and that there had been attempts to convince him to travel abroad for medical treatment – most probably to Germany where he underwent treatment to remove a gallbladder last year. However he said: “Mubarak is refusing this…in fact, he has asked those around him to allow him to die in his country, and I believe this is just a matter of time”.

Conflicting reports continue to emerge in relation to the 82-year-old’s health however, with a source who knows the family saying on Monday that Mubarak was not sick, according to Reuters.