Ted Kennedy has operation on brain tumour

Ted Kennedy, the 76-year-old patriarch of the most potent dynasty in Democrat politics, "successfully" underwent surgery on a malignant brain tumour yesterday, his doctors said.

"I feel like a million bucks. I think I'll do that again tomorrow," he was quoted by a spokeswoman as telling his wife immediately after the three-and-a-half-hour operation at the Duke University medical centre in North Carolina, aimed at removing as much of the tumour as possible and improving the prospects for subsequent treatments.

Doctors said the surgery had "accomplished our goals".

"I look forward to returning to the US Senate and doing everything I can to help elect Barack Obama as our next president," he said before the operation.

As the last surviving brother of the assassinated president John F Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy, the Massachusetts senator, he has carried the torch for the clan's liberal politics for most of his life, entering the Senate as soon as he was able to, at 30.