ABUJA — Nigeria's ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, in Saudi Arabia for more than two months for treatment for an acute heart condition, will return soon, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan said Thursday.

At a ceremony to receive letters of credence from four new ambassadors, Jonathan thanked them "for their concern over the health of President Umaru Yar'Adua and assured them that the president would soon be back in the country," his office said in a statement.

The statement, however, did not indicate exactly when Yar'Adua, who left the country on November 23, would return.

Yar'Adua's prolonged absence has caused a "period of uncertainty" in top oil producer Nigeria, the United States and European Union said Thursday in a joint statement.

Timeline: Nigeria in crisis over ailing president

"Nigeria is going through a period of uncertainty because of the prolonged illness of President Musa Umaru Yar?Adua," said the statement by the United States, European Union, Britain and France.

A Nigerian federal high court will on Friday rule on a suit filed by top Nigerian lawyers seeking an order for Yar'Adua to hand full powers to Jonathan until his return.

The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday urged Yar'Adua to take steps to transfer power to his deputy in accordance with the country's constitution.

But the government the same day said that Yar'Adua was fit to stay in office despite being abroad for more than two months for treatment.

"The president is not incapable of discharging the functions of his office," the cabinet said in a terse statement in response to a High Court order last Friday giving it 14 days to make a declaration on the president's fitness to govern Africa's most populous state.

A group of former Nigerian leaders and elder statesmen on Thursday in Abuja agreed with the Senate and said it was necessary for Yar'Adua to communicate his medical vacation to the parliament to enable his deputy act in his absence.

"It is important to resolve this issue by inviting the president to formally issue the necessary communication that will enable the vice president to be acting president," said the group in a letter signed on its behalf by former head of state General Yakubu Gowon.

Other members of the group, who presented the letter in Abuja Thursday to Jonathan and the heads of the two chambers of parliament, are Shehu Shagari (1979-83) and Ernest Shonekan (1993) -- both ex-civilian leaders.

Former vice president Alex Ekwueme, ex-chief justices of the federation Mohammed Uwais, Alfa Belgore and Idris Kutigi, as well as former army chief General Theophilus Danjuma, were also part of the delegation.

The group said that the letter was written "following a critical review of the general political situation of the country in the recent past but more especially since the illness of the President and his prolonged absence."

Pressure has been piling up in recent weeks for Yar'Adua to step aside. Even his own mentor and predecessor Olusegun Obasanjo has suggested he resigns.

Critics have called for Yar'Adua to step down, or failing that, for the cabinet to replace him on the grounds that his lengthy absence from the helm of Africa's second-biggest oil exporter demonstrates an "incapacity" to perform his functions.

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yar adua can no longer rule. let him stop deceiving himself and hand over to jonathan. the guy's sick and he is dying.

I thought he was coming back this week now it is "soon"

lol! frm this week to soon then later it will 'HE WILL BACK' Useless people. they think they are talkin to goats.

weve heard this thing before,now more tha two months we keep hearing soon,
The man is dying,but;
Nigeria is his personal property,people STAY OFF,stop TRESPASSING,,
I see leaving us in wahala for 63 days,without handing over

The more you look the less you see