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Comatose Arafat clings to life

Israeli website reports he opens eyes; Palestinian PM begins Gaza talks

Agencies, Paris
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat remains in a critical condition, a senior aide says, despite a media report that he might have opened his eyes and talked to doctors.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, a senior aide to Arafat, said the 75-year-old leader was still in a serious condition at the French military hospital where doctors have been unable to determine what is wrongwith him.
"The doctors say Ills condition is not irreversible. There is no change, he is still in a critical condition. The doctors still do not know what is wrongwith him,” Abu Rdainah said.
YNET, the website of leading Israeli daily Yediot Ahronoth, earlier yesterday quoted Palestinian sources as saying Arafat had partially emerged from a coma and was communicating with doctors. Rdainah did notcomment on that report Doctors said late Friday there had been no change - - for better or worse - in the 75-year-old patient's health. They have yet to offer any official public diagnosis.
"The state of President Yasser Arafat’s health has not worsened," Gen. Christian Estripeau told reporters camped outside the hospital. "It is considered stable since the previous health bulletin." In an equally terse statement Thursday, the hospital spokesman denied rumors that Arafat was dead.
Conflicting reports on Arafat's health have emerged since he was rushed into the hospital’s intensive care unit on Wednesday night, with many in his close circle concerned that the news about his health might increase chaos back home.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei has begun talks with faction leaders in Gaza, as uncertainty mounts over who will succeed Yasser Arafat, if he dies.
Qurei is meeting officials from a number of groups. Including Hamas and Islamic Jihad. He has been stressing the need for unity.
Many Palestinians fear a power vacuum and a battle for political control. Foreign leaders are urging the Palestinians not to abandon stalled peace efforts with Israel if Arafat dies.
A row is also brewing over where Arafat, who personifies the Palestinian struggle for an independent state, might be buried.
Palestinian officials have refused to discuss funeral preparations openly, but Arafat has said he wants to be buried in Jerusalem. Israel wants Arafat, admired by Palestinians but reviled by many Israelis, to be buried in the Gaza Strip.
The death of a Palestinian leader Israel and Washington see as an obstacle to peace could alter the dynamics of the Middle East conflict.
HOSPITALVIGAL
A hospital spokesman said late on Friday that Arafat's condition had not deteriorated in the previous 24 hours but gave no details.
Supporters staged another vigil outside the hospital, burning candles, waving Palestinian flags and carrying pictures of the Palestinian leader.
He was rushed to France from the West Bank on October 29 with severe stomach pains,- diarrhoea and vomiting. Doctors have ruled out leukaemia but have not said what is wrong with him.
Some of Arafat’s powers over security and financing have been
handed to Prime Minister Ahmed Quric, a leading moderate.
But he has not suggested a preferred successor and Palestinians fear a power struggle as they wage a four-year-old uprising against Israeli occupation.
At a meeting in the Gaza Strip on Friday, 14 Islamic and secular Palestinian groups involved in the uprising for a Palestinian state put up a united front.
"We arc people looking for freedom, not fighting tribes," said senior Islamic Jihad official Mohammed al-Hindi, who emerged from hiding for the meeting. "We have demanded the formation of a unified national leadership."
In Brussels, worried European Union leaders said peace efforts must go on whether or not Arafat survives.
"Europe will continue to make every possible effort to ensure that the Palestinian state becomes a reality," said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Washington and Israel accuse ApfaLufftupen t i ng.vioienn^*gainst Israel, a charge he has denied. The Palestinians want Gaza and the West Bank -- territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war - for a state. (Reuters/AP/BBC)