Arafat in coma, some powers transferred

7.48am - By WAFA AMR and JOELLE DIDERICH

CLAMART, France - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was fighting for his life in a French hospital on Thursday after slipping into a coma, and a senior official said some of his powers had been handed to his prime minister.

The 75-year-old leader, who embodies the Palestinian struggle for statehood, went into a coma overnight at the military hospital where he has been treated since last week.

Aides said he was in a critical condition but they and a French hospital spokesman denied he was dead. They also dismissed reports that he was brain dead, but said they were becoming increasingly pessimistic about his health.

"President Arafat does not have cardiac arrest or heart failure," Ashraf al-Kurdi, Arafat's Jordanian doctor said.

"He is still alive. He is not clinically dead. There is no brain death, but his condition is deteriorating. Because there has been no diagnosis, we don't know what's wrong with him."

A senior Palestinian official said: "President Arafat is in very serious condition. He is still in a coma. The sense people are getting is that they are increasingly pessimistic."

In the West Bank city of Ramallah a senior Palestinian official said Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, a leading moderate, had taken over some of Arafat's powers for security and financing.

Arafat has not named a successor and had earlier been reluctant to cede any powers.

Palestinian security services were due to hold an emergency meeting in the evening at Arafat's shell-battered headquarters in Ramallah, security sources said.

The slide into illness of the former guerrilla leader who has dominated the Palestinian scene for four decades has raised fears of chaos among Palestinians waging a 4-year-old uprising.

The death of a leader Israel and Washington see as an obstacle to peace could also shuffle the cards in the Middle East conflict.

Palestinian officials issued conflicting reports throughout the day and at one point Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, speaking on arrival at a European Union summit, announced Arafat had died. He later retracted his statement.

"Mr Arafat has not died," said a spokesman for the Percy military hospital in Clamart, a suburb southwest of Paris, where the Palestinian leader has been undergoing treatment.

Doctors carrying out tests on Arafat since he was airlifted to France last Friday still did not know what was wrong with him, although they have ruled out leukaemia, aides said.

Asked about the reports that Arafat had been declared dead, US President George Bush told a news conference: "My first reaction is God bless his soul."

"And my second reaction is we will continue to work for a free Palestinian state that's at peace with Israel."

Arafat's immune system appeared weak as his health, which had at first stabilised after he arrived at the hospital, suddenly deteriorated on Wednesday, the aides said.

He was transferred to the intensive care unit on Wednesday at around 5pm (0500 NZT).

"He has no immunity whatsoever," one aide said, adding he slipped into the coma around 2am (1400 NZT) on Thursday.

Arafat was rushed to France last Friday with severe stomach pains, diarrhoea and vomiting. French President Jacques Chirac visited Arafat on Thursday afternoon.

Both Washington and Israel accuse Arafat of fomenting violence in the uprising against Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank that broke out in 2000, a charge he denies.

Until he was airlifted to France, Arafat had been effectively confined to his shell-shattered Ramallah headquarters by Israeli forces for 2-1/2 years.

- REUTERS