United States President Barack Obama has played down expectations he will meet former President Nelson Mandela in hospital, as he prepares to land in South Africa.
He told reporters on board Air Force One, "I don't need a photo op."
Obama was heading to Johannesburg from Senegal, which was the first stop in his three-country tour of Africa.
Meanwhile, Mr Mandela's ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela said the former leader had made "a great improvement" in recent days.
"I'm not a doctor but I can say that from what he was a few days ago there is great improvement," she told reporters outside Mr Mandela's former home in Soweto.
"But clinically he is still unwell."
She also thanked domestic and international media for their coverage, but added that some of the reports had caused the family distress.
"There may be problems here and there when some of you get carried away and talk about our father in the past tense," she said, adding,
"If sometimes we sound bitter, it is because we are dealing with a difficult situation."
Earlier this week, Mr Mandela's eldest daughter criticised the international media camped outside the hospital in Pretoria where he is being treated, calling them "vultures".
Meanwhile, a court in the Eastern Cape has granted an application brought by the Mandela family to exhume three of his children and two other relatives and rebury them in the family cemetery in Qunu, which is where the former leader wants to be buried, their lawyers say.
The BBC's Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg says this is one of the reasons why the family held a meeting earlier this week. The family has been keen to resolve this issue while Mr Mandela remains in hospital.
In Senegal on Thursday, Mr Obama described Mr Mandela as a "hero for the world", whose "legacy will linger on through the ages", and he explained how he was a "personal hero" who had inspired his own activism as a student.
However, he told reporters on Friday he did not expect to meet him during his visit to South Africa.
"I don't need a photo op," he said aboard Air Force One after leaving Senegal. "The last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive at a time when the family is concerned with Nelson Mandela's condition."
He went on to say, "I think the main message we'll want to deliver is not directly to him, but to his family – is simply profound gratitude for his leadership all these years, and that the thoughts and prayers of the American people are with him, his family and his country."
Mr Obama met Mr Mandela in 2005 when he was still a US senator. Both men became the first black presidents of their nations and have received the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Punch