Former Zionist Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was on Sunday facing "imminent" death.

Former Zionist Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was on Sunday facing "imminent" death, the Tel Aviv hospital where he is in critical condition announced.

The health of the 85-year-old Sharon, who was dubbed "the Bulldozer" both for his style and physique, has been worsening since Wednesday when he suffered serious kidney problems after surgery.

And on Sunday, the director of Tel Hashomer hospital said Sharon was "still in danger of imminent death" although his "heart is holding out better than we thought".

"I am more pessimistic than I was before... his vital functions, especially renal, haven't picked up," Zeev Rotstein told reporters.

"I can't see the future, but there's not possible way out of this."

On Friday the hospital said there were traces of infection in Sharon's blood, and that it had not been possible for him to undergo renal dialysis since his other organs were in such a fragile state.

Sharon suffered a massive stroke on January 4, 2006, slipping into a coma from which he has never recovered.

He was first elected premier in February 2001, just months after walking through east Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa holy mosque compound, in an action that sparked the second Palestinian uprising.