Egypt to host military funeral for Arafat

CAIRO - Egypt, where Yasser Arafat began his political life and where biographers say he was born, will host a military funeral for the former Palestinian president on Friday before his burial in the West Bank, officials said.

Palestinian officials have begun arriving in the Egyptian capital to make arrangements for the ceremony expected to take place at Cairo airport, to avoid the crowded streets of the sprawling city.

Arafat's body will be flown from Paris, where he was declared dead at a military hospital on Thursday, aged 75.

Egypt's official Middle East News Agency said: "There will be a formal military funeral and then the body will be taken to Ramallah where the Palestinian leader will be laid to rest."

Arafat is due to be interred in Ramallah on Saturday at the compound where he had been effectively confined for over 2-1/2 years by Israeli forces -- the "Muqata", itself now a symbol of the struggle for the state that Arafat never lived to see.

Traditionally in Muslim culture, funeral prayers are followed by a procession and burial. On the same day or sometimes later, a ceremony is held for offering condolences.

At previous funerals of Arab leaders, bodies have lain in state before burial while other leaders prayed over them.

Palestinian officials said Cairo was chosen so Arab leaders and dignitaries unable to travel to the West Bank, which is mostly under Israeli occupation, could attend Arafat's funeral.

The Arab League headquarters in the centre of Cairo had been cited as a possible venue for the official condolences, but a League official said the plans were not clear, although he said the League was ready to offer any assistance necessary.

"My understanding is that Egypt is a venue for the funeral for all those Arab, Palestinian, and other world leaders and officials who cannot for any reason be present in Ramallah," he said.

Egypt has long been a key mediator in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict after it signed its own peace treaty with Israel in 1979, the first Arab state to do so. The treaty was condemned by many Palestinians and much of the Arab world at the time.

Biographies say Arafat was born in Cairo in 1929, although Arafat himself said he was born in Jerusalem.

Cairo University was where Arafat studied engineering and where he began his political life by taking over the Palestinian Students League in 1952.

He was also a regular visitor to Egypt throughout his life as head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

- REUTERS