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Arafat fate mired in confusion

Hospital says he slips into ’deeper coma',, some sources claim he is dead

AGENCTES, Paris
Die fate of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was mired in confusion yesterday as French medical sources contradicted reports by senior Palestinian officials that he had died at a Paris hospital.
Several Palestinian sources said Arafat, 75, had succumbed to the mystery illness that led to his being flown to Paris from the West Bank on October 29 but a source close to the French medical team treating him said: "Mr. Arafat is not dead."
"For sure he is dead," said the minister who spoke to AIT on condition of anonymity. "Il's a question of how and when to announce it. It (an announcement) will be most likely made tonight."
A senior Palestinian official also told the news agency from France that Arafat had passed away.
"It’s just a matter of hours before they make an official announcement about the death."
'rhe comments came shortly after a delegation of four senior Palestinian officials including prime minister Ahmed Queri and acting Palestine liberation Organisation (PLO) leader Mahmud Abbas had visited the hospital where he has been since October 29.
But Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told CNN from Paris that Arafat was alive and no decision has been made to take him off lifesupport.
"His coma has deepened but he is fully alive," Shaath said. "His brain, heart and lungs, his vital organs still functioning."
A French official at the army medical service in Paris said that Arafat was "not dead" at 3:30pm (1430 GMT).
"The statement made public by General Christian Estripcau is still valid at 3:30pm," he said.
Estripcau, the medical service’s official spokesman, said earlier Tuesday that Arafat had slipped into a "deeper coma."
"His situation is serious. Sadly it is very serious. We have seen all the doctors," Abbas told AFP after the visit.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat told Arafat was "critical but still alive", denying reports he had died.
Earlier, the Palestine delegation held talks described as "political" with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, and in the afternoon they had an appointment with President Jacques Chirac. A press conference was scheduled for 6:00pm (1700 GMT).
The delegation’s arrival in Paris came against the background of a bitter quarrel with Suha Arafat, who has used France's strict privacy laws to control access to her husband and severely limit information about his health.
In four decades leading the Palestinian nationalist cause, Arafat has gone from guerrilla icon to Nobel prize-winning peacemaker to a shunned old leader mired in renewed bloodshed with Israel.
Arafat has been in a coma brought on by a still-undisclosed illness, with his dream of a Palestinian state unrealized, a possible succession battle brewing and the threat of chaos in Palestinian territories looming.
He had been widely admired by Palestinians as the father of their struggle for statehood but was reviled by many Israelis as the face of terror.
Nonetheless, both sides have wondered whether his death might serve as the catalyst for first real peace effort in years or plunge the region into dec per crisis.
SWIFT DECUNE
Arafat had been flown to the Paris military hospital from his battered West Bank headquarters where he had been effectively confined by Israel for more than two and a half years.
Despite his reputation as a consummate survivor, Arafat's decline came swiftly and with little warning.
Initial claims that he was suffering from a stomach ailment were soon buried in a flurry of reports that he had slipped into a coma and that his organs were failing.
French doctors kept a tight lid on details of Arafat's condition at the behest of his wife, who engaged in a war of words with senior Palestinians officials over her virtual monopoly on information from his hospital bedside.
But on Tuesday, as the officials arrived in Paris to check on Arafat despite his wife's objections, doctors said he had slipped deeper into a coma.
The hospital had ruled out leukemia but had not given any diagnosis of Arafat's illness. Palestinian officials said he had suffered from liver failure.
All three leaders who flew into Paris on Monday are potential successors and Arafat’s wife had accused them of wanting to "bury him alive." Shaath said the delegation wanted to get the full facts on Arafat.
Despite the bickering, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Monday he was impressed by the Palestinian leaders' handling of Arafat's absence and said he hoped the "relative calm" in the region would continue.
"I hope that sense of quiet and calm can be maintained and (that) it gives us something to work with." Powell told reporters on the way to Mexico. He reiterated that the United States was "ready to engage as soon as it is appropriate to engage" with the so-called road map peace plan. (AFP/Reuters)