WORLD : Ailing Papandreou, Leftist Confer

Caretaker Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, hospitalized with failing kidneys and pneumonia, held bedside negotiations today with Communist Party leader Harilaos Florakis in an effort to form a new government, political sources said.

Papandreou, 70, hooked up Sunday to a dialysis machine that purified his blood when his kidneys began to malfunction, was attended by 12 Greek doctors in the Athens General Hospital and visited by five foreign heart and kidney specialists. After overnight dialysis treatment, his condition had improved enough for him to request the meeting with Florakis, head of the Communist-led Leftist Alliance for Progress, to continue efforts to form a coalition government, authorities said. There was no immediate word on the outcome of the talks.

The Leftist Alliance for progress won enough seats in parliamentary elections last Sunday to form a partnership with either the conservative New Democracy party or Papandreou’s Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement.