By Jocelyn Noveck
                  Associated Press Writer
                  Monday, September 7, 1998; 2:18 p.m. EDT

                  PARIS (AP) -- Questions mounted Monday about the operation that landed France's interior minister in a coma, although doctors said his condition was improving.

                  Jean-Pierre Chevenement, in charge of the country's police and security forces, has been in a coma since last Wednesday, when he suffered a heart attack after an allergic reaction to anesthesia for gall bladder surgery.

                  France's top daily, Le Monde, demanded more details about
                  Chevenement's condition and about the precautions taken when he went in for the surgery at Val de Grace military hospital in Paris.

                  The 59-year-old Chevenement, a key figure in Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's Socialist government, suffered what was described as an
extremely rare reaction to a component in the anesthesia. It was unclear
whether he was tested for such an allergy in advance.

                  The hospital said Monday that Chevenement's health had improved in the last 48 hours, but it still didn't know what kind of lasting neurological damage he may have suffered, or when he might be taken off life support.

                  It did not mention the word ``coma,'' but a Defense Ministry spokesman told The Associated Press the minister was still in a coma. The hospital statement said Chevenement was technically out of shock and ``all the
vital organ failures are currently regressing.''

                  Doctors said last week that Chevenement was in a ``reactive coma.'' But they later said it wasn't possible to determine how deep the coma was because he was heavily sedated.

                  Le Monde demanded in an editorial Monday that the government address the situation openly and clearly since the elite military hospital is under the aegis of the Defense Ministry.

                  ``To remain vague, to shelter behind secrecy -- be it medical, military or state -- is the surest way of letting rumor take over,'' the daily said.

                  Claude Allegre, the education minister, caused a stir Sunday when he said Chevenement's condition was ``alarming.''

                  Other French newspapers have hinted at questions about the accident, but Le Monde was the first to demand answers.

                  Interior minister since 1997, Chevenement has been an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy, especially during the Gulf War, when he resigned as defense minister to protest France's involvement in the U.S.-led coalition against Iraq.

                  He has been temporarily replaced by France's deputy minister for overseas territories, Jean-Jack Queyranne.