Appearing on the America TV network late Sunday, 17-year-old Dalma Maradona said her father was still under sedation, his condition had improved and that family members took it as a good sign that a respirator had been removed for the second time.

"I am relieved and pleased because, while this process is going to be slow, one can say things are now better. They are much better compared with the day when he was admitted," she said.

Doctors said the 43-year-old soccer great's condition had stabilized and he is "no longer suffering from a fever, and his heart is functioning well with medication."

Maradona remains in the critical care unit of a private hospital where he was admitted April 18. He was originally taken off the respirator Friday it was but back on Saturday to help assist his breathing.

The superstar's life was, until recently, largely controlled by his agent Guillermo Coppola.

Since he was taken to hospital a week ago suffering from a swollen heart, breathing problems and pneumonia, however, his estranged wife Claudia Villafane and his two teenage daughters have been running the show.

Local media report that Claudia decides who is allowed to see the former Argentina World Cup winner, who has been in the intensive care unit at the Suizo-Argentina Hospital since last Sunday night.

Villafane also controls the flow of information on Maradona's health, which has been restricted to one official hospital statement a day.

Family doctor Alfredo Cahe has not spoken to the media since Tuesday.

Villafane, who was married to Maradona for 14 years before the pair separated at the end of 2003, has taken the job that Coppola would have been expected to do.

Coppola and Maradona were inseparable for much of the player's career but the pair fell out at the start of the year.

Since returning from Cuba, where he has been on a drugs rehabilitation programme, Maradona has appeared in several television chat views and launched bitter, repeated attacks on his former partner.

Coppola visited the clinic on Sunday but did not go inside.

Maradona's daughters entered the scene on Friday when supporters of his beloved club Boca Juniors announced they were planning to bring a band to play in front of the hospital.

His daughters took the initiative and issued a statement asking for the act to either not take place or be held somewhere else, saying their father needed silence.

"Today, dad needs to be quiet so that he can recover and be with us again," they said.

"That's why we ask the real supporters and fanatics to co-operate, not just by not shouting his name but helping to quieten anyone who does."