Arafat's health considered "stable"

The French hospital treating ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Friday that his health "has not deteriorated and is considered stable," while his spokeswoman in Paris denied he was brain dead.

Early on Friday, Leila Shahid, Arafat's spokeswoman in Paris, also said he was "in a reversible coma."

Meanwhile, official Palestinian sources Friday denied an Israeli report that the 75-year-old leader left a will naming Farouq al Qadoomi, chief of the Political Bureau in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), as his successor.

"Yasser Arafat's condition has not deteriorated and is considered stable since the last health update" given 24 hours earlier on Thursday, said Friday Christian Estripeau, spokesman for French Defense Forces' medical service outside the Percy military hospital in a southwest Paris suburb.

The same spokesman announced Thursday that the Palestinian leader is still alive after some French and Israeli reports said Arafat was dead.

French President Jacques Chirac said Friday morning in Brussels,where he attended a European Union (EU) summit, that Arafat is "under excellent medical treatment," but he refused to comment on Arafat's condition or the Middle East situation.

Israeli daily newspaper Maariv Friday quoted Palestinian sources as saying that Arafat had given his wife Suha a written will naming al Qadoomi as his successor.

The report was later branded as "totally untrue" by Palestinianofficials.

Israeli media were seen by Palestine in efforts to cause confusion among the Palestinians by providing misinformation.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday expressed hope for a smooth transition and progress toward the goal of a Palestinian statehood.

"I think chairman Arafat embodied in his person the Palestinian aspirations for ... statehood," Annan said. "He's been leader of his people all these years, and obviously is going to leave a gap amongst the Palestinians."

"But I hope -- and so far they seem to be handling it well -- that a succession will not be a problem," he said.

The EU summit Friday expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people in this "difficult moment" and vowed to remain committed to the Middle East roadmap peace plan.

The EU "remains committed to the two-state solution as laid out in the roadmap" which would lead to "a viable, contiguous, sovereign and independent Palestinian state existing side by side in peace with Israel," said a statement.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath announced Friday that Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei would head to Gaza on Saturday to meet with representatives of militant groups and factions.

Earlier, Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), announced that Qurei's bureau in Ramallah had contacted him for an appointment on Saturday.

"The meeting would focus on the latest developments after the deterioration of Arafat's health conditions," Abu Zhuri said, adding: "The situation is very serious and needs meetings and contacts to rescue it from deterioration."

Arafat might be poisoned: Sources

The sources told Xinhua that Israel is accused and responsible for trying to poison Arafat, adding that "Israel wanted to get rid of Arafat through a slow death."

The question that Arafat had been poisoned" is a first priority for his illness after doctors at Percy Military Hospital outside Paris in France failed to diagnose the illness that Arafat suffers from, said the sources.

Arafat's bureau chief of staff Tayeb Abdel Rahim told reporters in Ramallah that the possibilities that Arafat has been poisoned are one of the existing possibilities."

Palestinian reports said that the Palestinian security forces are holding intensive investigation to find out whether the poison had been put into his food, adding that Arafat had escaped 13 timesĦĦof assassinations, three of them were to poison him.

The checkups that had been made to Arafat since he was transferred from Ramallah to France on Oct. 29 showed that he doesn't suffer from any organic disease or Leukemia. But his healthĦĦhas been deteriorating.

Palestinian sources said that the French doctors took blood samples and sent it to Germany to diagnose the disease or the reason that makes Arafat ill.

Abdel Rahim announced on Saturday that Arafat is not "in coma," adding that "Arafat is completely conscious to what is going on around him, where he spoke with his doctors."

Source: Xinhua