First Russian President Boris Yeltsin goes through operation

Doctors at a Moscow hospital have conducted a hip operation on former President Boris Yeltsin who fell badly during a vacation on an Italian island.

Valery Zolotov, chief doctor at the Moscow hospital where the operation was conducted, said the operation "took place fully satisfactorily."

Yeltsin fell at around 0400GMT Wednesday while staying at a resort town on the island of Sardinia. Italian paramedics said he broke his thigh bone.

Yeltsin, Russia's first elected president after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union has kept a low profile since resigning Dec. 31, 1999, appearing only occasionally at tennis tournaments or to greet foreign officials.

During the final years of his presidency, he was dogged by health problems, retreating regularly to his country residence outside Moscow and spending days, and sometimes weeks, away from the Kremlin, the AP reports.