SYDNEY -- East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta may be brought out of his medically-induced coma later this week after undergoing his fifth operation since being shot, his spokesman said Monday.

The Nobel peace laureate was making steady progress at the Royal Darwin Hospital where he was air-lifted following an attempted on his life outside his home in Dili last week, spokesman Luke Gosling said.

Ramos-Horta was briefly conscious last week after doctors lightened the level of his medication, but the medics decided to sedate him again, he said.

"He just really needed to totally rest," Gosling told Agence France-Presse.

"The decision was made because he was going to have another operation anyway. So a decision was made to continue him on the ventilator and sedation."

Gosling said Tuesday's operation will be one of the last the president faces after four earlier rounds of surgery to repair and clean up the damage left by at least two bullet wounds to the back and chest.

He said the medical staff treating the president would reassess the need for sedation again after Tuesday's operation.

"That's a decision they would make as they see his reaction to the operation and how he was tracking," he said.

"They would want to make a decision on that by the end of the week."