DHAKA: India’s finance minister Arun Jaitley may have to cancel a trip to the United States in October after he was moved to an isolation ward of a government-run hospital to help him recover from an infection that followed a stomach operation to treat diabetes.

Jaitley is due to attend a World Bank meeting on October 10 to October 12 in Washington, where he is also expected to meet senior government officials.

He was due to leave on October 8.

‘It seem doubtful that he would be able to take stress for the long journey to the US and participate in the World Bank meeting,’ said a senior finance ministry official, adding the final decision would be taken in consultation with his doctors.

The 61-year-old lawyer, who also holds the defence portfolio in PM Narendra Modi’s four-month-old government, had to skip a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations in Australia this month.

Jaitley was expected to visit the Pentagon during his trip to Washington.

He was admitted to a private hospital in New Delhi on September 1 for gastric bypass surgery to treat weight gain he has suffered because of a long-standing diabetic condition.

He was re-admitted to hospital last week, a doctor who operated on him said.

BDST: 1626 HRS, SEP 29, 2014