RIYADH - Saudi surgeons separated overnight Malaysian Siamese twins who were born joined at the stomach, in the sixth such "successful" operation at a Riyadh hospital.

"The operation, carried out with Saudi competence, was successful," Abdallah al-Rabiaa, head of the medical surgery team at King Abdul Aziz hospital told the official SPA news agency today.

The operation on four-year-olds Muhammad and Ahmad Rosli was financed by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz.

Abdullah had asked the Saudi embassy in London to send the brothers from the United Kingdom to Saudi Arabia for the operation. — AFP