Sources close to Arafat early on Friday denied he was "brain dead" and breathing only thanks to artificial life support systems, as a French medical official had said after conflicting reports as to whether he was alive or dead.
"President Arafat is not in a coma, his state of health inspires confidence in us, he has not lost consciousness, partially or totally, and his vital organs are working normally," said Muhammad Rashid, a member of the 75-year-old leader's delegation here.
He told journalists: "He does not need help from any reanimation machine and we hope that his general condition will improve in the next few hours."
Arafat's closest adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina also denied that the Palestinian leader was brain dead.
Earlier, the French official had told AFP on condition of confidentiality that in strictly technical terms, Arafat was "not dead," but he had slipped into an irreversible coma and could only be maintained in his vegetative state through ventilation machines.
The information followed a short statement by a senior French military official who said "Mr Arafat is not dead."
The Palestinian Authority president's condition was "complex," General Christian Estripeau, spokesman for the French defense forces' medical service, told reporters outside the military hospital tending to Arafat.
"The patient's condition needs appropriate treatment, which required his being transferred to a unit suited to his pathology on the afternoon of Wednesday," he said. He refused to take questions, but said his statement had been prepared according to the wishes of Arafat's wife, Suha.
The announcement capped a rapid chain of events during which several reports - including one from Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker - said Arafat was dead.
Juncker, speaking at an EU summit in Brussels, said that Arafat had died.
"Mr Arafat passed away a quarter of an hour ago," Juncker told reporters. His aides later retracted the statement.
Israeli media had also reported the Palestinian leader's death.
Confirmation of brain death, or encephalic death, is a medical precondition to declaring a patient dead, although he or she may still show signs of life maintained artificially on a life support system.
French President Jacques Chirac, who made a half-hour visit to the Percy Military Training Hospital where Arafat had been admitted on October 29, refused to answer journalists' questions as to whether Arafat was dead.
Palestinian officials in Paris and the West Bank spent Thursday first denying that Arafat was in a coma and then that he had died, but said their leader was in a "critical condition" in the hospital's intensive care unit.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei told reporters at his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah that Arafat "is not in a coma."
"There have been examinations and results are positive," he said without elaborating.
"It is wrong. If the president was dead, the whole world would know," Palestinian communications minister Azzam Al Ahmed Said.
"But it is true that he is a very critical condition," he added.
French medical sources said Arafat's health suddenly and dramatically deteriorated on Wednesday while he was undergoing tests to determine the cause of an illness which prompted his medical evacuation to France.
A diagnosis of the illness has not been revealed.
Palestinian officials said weekend tests had ruled out leukaemia or other cancers that might have explained the symptoms suffered by Arafat, who had low levels of blood platelets needed for blood clotting.
In Washington, newly re-elected US President George W. Bush said "God bless his soul" when told by a reporter of the unconfirmed reports that the Palestinian leader had died.
A US State Department official later said: "The latest we have from the French is that he is in a critical but semi-conscious state."
He added: "It's not looking good."
A French medical source said an EEG was carried out on Arafat on Thursday - itself "a sign of extreme gravity" - and that there was no reading of any cerebral activity.
France has long supported Arafat in his 40-year struggle for Palestinian statehood, and Chirac was said to have made the decision personally to provide hospital treatment for him.
Arafat was said to have been well enough on Wednesday to welcome Bush's winning a second term, and, according to one of his aides, said he hoped for a jumpstart to the moribund Middle East peace process.
Arafat's departure on October 29 from his battered West Bank headquarters had sparked intense speculation about his eventual successor, but officials insist there is no power vacuum.
In Arafat's absence, Qurei has taken over as acting head of the Palestinian Authority, while former premier Mahmoud Abbas is temporarily heading the PLO and Arafat's dominant Fatah faction.
Abbas had been expected to visit Arafat on Thursday, but officials in Ramallah said his trip to France was cancelled.
Several dozen people gathered outside the Percy military hospital late on Thursday in a tribute to Arafat.
Supporters of Arafat placed portraits of the Palestinian leader at the scene, unfurled Palestinian flags and lit candles in his honor, part of a ritual that first began when Arafat entered the hospital.
Several people said they were ready to spend the whole night outside the hospital, "waiting for news" according to Fatima Bena, who had come to pay homage with dates and hot coffee.
© 2004 Agence France-Presse
To add a comment,
Please log in:
Don't have an account?
Register now to comment on stories and stay up to date on important events and issues in the Middle East with our newsletter.