JAKARTA, Indonesia - Ailing Indonesian ex-dictator Suharto's condition is taking another grave turn today.

The 86-year-old's medical team says he has developed sepsis -- a potentially deadly infection of the blood.

The added malady has reduced the likelihood that the retired five-star general would be able to recover from multiple organ failure he suffered since falling ill earlier this month.

Doctor Harryanto Reksodiputro says Suharto's condition is very bad, considering his old age, his previous strokes and poorly functioning kidneys, heart and lungs.

Sepsis, which is characterized by a whole-body inflammatory state caused by infection, can progress to blood circulatory dysfunction and eventually death.

Suharto was rushed to a hospital in Jakarta, with anemia, failing kidneys and heart trouble on Jan. 4 and his health has sharply deteriorated.

Aides said privately he appeared several times to be on the verge of death.

Doctors have responded in Suharto's case by maximizing intensive care and administering intravenous anti-infection drugs, said another doctor, Marjo Subiandono. The former dictator also has pneumonia, another grave threats to patients with multiple organ failure.

The retired five-star general's lungs and kidneys were barely functioning Monday, but his heart had shown signs of improvement and he responded to family members and regional leaders who visited him at his bedside.

Suharto, whose 32-year regime was widely regarded as one of the 20th century's most brutal and corrupt, was driven from office a decade ago amid massive student protests and nationwide riots, opening the way for democracy in this predominantly Muslim country of 235 million people.

He retired to his Jakarta mansion after his ouster. A series of strokes left him with brain damage and impaired speech -- keeping him from facing trial.

He has been accused of overseeing a purge of more than half a million leftist opponents soon after seizing power in a 1965 coup. Hundreds of thousands more were killed or imprisoned in the decades that followed -- crimes for which no one has ever been punished.

Transparency International has said Suharto and his family amassed billions of dollars in state funds, an allegation he has denied.