Bangkok, Shawwal 04, 1436, July 20, 2015, SPA -- The Vietnamese government Monday denied a report that the defence minister died in a Paris hospital at the weekend. General Phung Quang Thanh's health was "stable" after surgery in the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris, said Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People's Army. "I talked to him yesterday," he told dpa. "He will return to Vietnam at the end of this month." An earlier dpa report said the general died Sunday after receiving treatment at the hospital, citing a source at the hospital. In early July, Pham Gia Khai, a member of the Board for Protection and Care of the Health of Central-Level Officials, confirmed that Thanh was recovering from surgery for a lung tumour in France. --SPA 13:13 LOCAL TIME 10:13 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w