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Arafat slips into coma

Aides give mixed reports on his health

Agencies, Paris
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has been in a coma since Wednesday evening and is now in critical condition in the intensive care unit at a French military hospital, French medical sources say.
"He is still in a coma," the medical sources said.
The report was contradicted by Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah, however, who told reporters Arafat was notin a coma.
"He is not in a coma," he told reporters. "There have been examinations and results are positive," he said without elaborating.
However, some Arafat aides said doctors carrying out tests on the 75-ycar-old leader since he was airlifted to France last Friday still did not know what was wrong with him, despite rulingout leukemia.
Arafat's immune system appeared quite weak as his health, which had at first stabilised after he arrived at the hospital on Friday, suddenly deteriorated on
"Arafat is in a coma and in a critical condition," a senior Palestinian official told Reuters. He was transferred to the intensive care unit on Wednesday at around 5:00pm (4 p.m. British time).
"lie has no immunity whatsoever," another aide said.
Rumours about Arafat’s health swirled yesterday as some Middle East media denied he was in a coma while others saw him close to death.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian officials said Arafat was not in a coma. "It's not true at all that Arafat went into a coma," Tayeb Abdul Rahim, a senior aide, told reporters.
A briefing by the hospital had been expected but was put off without any explanation. It was not clear whether it would make any statement during the day.
"New tests have been carried out including an endoscopy (visual internal examination). Nothing was found out from those tests," a senior aide said earlier onThursday.
Arafat, for decades a symbol of the Palestinian struggle with Israel, was rushed to France from the West Bank last Friday with severe stomach pains, diarrhoea and vomiting.
Arafat's slide into illness has raised fears of chaos among Palestinians locked in a 4-year-old uprising, and the death of a leader Israel and Washington see as an obstacle to peace could shuffle the cards in the Middle East conflict.
The French doctors said on TUesday that Arafat was responding to treatment although aides said the Palestinian leader could remain in the hospital in a southwestern Paris suburb for several more weeks.
Meanwhile, another Arafat aide has denied there was any setback and accused Israel of spreading rumors. The report first aired on Israel's ChannelTwo television.
" These unfounded reports are not coming from French medical teams, these are leaks from the Israeli side," said Mohammed Dahlan, a former Palestinian securitychief.
DOCTORS SEEK EXPLANATIONS Leila Shahid, the Palestinian's permanent envoy to Paris, earlier said that there was a setback in Arafat's health and that doctors were trying to find out what had caused it.
"Obviously in his case, there could be setbacks at times and this is a setback," said Shahid. "(On Thursday), the doctors will give a very clear and direct explanation and report on what is happening." (REUTERS,ARAFP)