KATHMANDU: Confessed French serial killer Charles Sobhraj, who is serving a life sentence in Nepal, is recovering after successful heart surgery in the Himalayan country.

Doctors at Shahid Gangalal Hospital in Kathmandu say Charles Sobhraj's heart surgery on Monday was uneventful. He was recovering in the hospital's cardiac care unit.

Sobhraj has been in a Nepal jail since 2004, when a court sentenced him to life in prison for the 1975 killing of a Western backpacker.

The Frenchman has in the past admitted killing several Western tourists, and is believed to have murdered at least 20 people in Afghanistan, India, Thailand, Turkey, Nepal, Iran and Hong Kong during the 1970s.

He was not arrested until 2003, when he came to Nepal as a tourist.