Senior Palestinians arrive to see Arafat

11.20am UPDATE


PARIS - Palestinian leaders have arrived in Paris hoping to see critically ill President Yasser Arafat at a French military hospital, despite a scathing attack by his wife who accused them of plotting to "bury him alive".

Amid an increasingly bitter row over Arafat's fate, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath and PLO Secretary General Mahmoud Abbas flew from the Jordanian capital Amman and landed at Paris' Le Bourget airport.

Israeli media reported the 75-year-old president would be taken off life-support equipment after the three leaders, all seen as potential successors, had visited him in the hospital's intensive care unit.

But Christian Estripeau, the chief doctor treating him in a French military hospital said: "His condition is stable ... Mr Arafat's medical condition forces us to limit visits."

He gave no further details.

One of the Palestinian officials said they would discuss Arafat's condition, the subject of conflicting reports, with senior French officials. They were also scheduled to see French President Jacques Chirac on Tuesday, his office said.

It was not clear when they would see Arafat. The delegation did not immediately speak to reporters after arriving.

The departure of the three leaders from the West Bank appeared to have been delayed after Arafat's wife Suha criticised them in a television interview.

"I appeal to you to be aware of the scope of the conspiracy," shouted Suha Arafat, appearing on Arabic Al Jazeera satellite television and sparking a war of words with her husband's deputies.

"They are trying to bury Abu Ammar (Arafat) alive," she said in comments that flew in the face of efforts by Arafat's lieutenants to project an image of unity and business as usual at a time when many Palestinians fear chaos if he dies.

"Abu Ammar is well and he is coming back to his homeland," she said, accusing the three leaders of being desperate to succeed him and giving no details about Arafat's illness.

After her remarks, Palestinian and French officials said the trip from the West Bank had been called off. But Mohammed Dahlan, a former security chief close to Abbas, said later: "There is no change of plan. The delegation is going to Paris."

Palestinian officials have privately accused Suha Arafat, who had not seen her husband for three years before the ailing leader was flown to Paris on October 29, of limiting access to the veteran leader and information about him.

"HYSTERIA"

"We express our utmost regret at the comments made by sister Suha," Qurie told reporters at the start of a cabinet meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "(Arafat) belongs to the Palestinian people."

Other officials were less diplomatic.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior figure in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, accused Mrs. Arafat of "hysteria" while deputy cabinet minister Sufian Abu Zaida said: "Yasser Arafat is not the private property of Suha Arafat."

Some 20 Palestinian women demonstrated at the entrance to Arafat's compound in Ramallah. They held pictures of Arafat and banners including one that read: "Where were you, Suha Tawil, while the president was under siege?"

Former Palestinian cabinet minister Hanan Ashrawi described Suha's comments as "very unfortunate, divisive, contentious" and said the leaders were going to Paris "to talk to the doctors to dispel all these misconceptions and rumours".

Arafat, symbol for decades of the Palestinian struggle for a state and against Israeli occupation, was suffering from liver failure, one Palestinian official said on Sunday.

Arafat's close circle has been concerned fears about his health may increase chaos at home. Others fear a power struggle among Palestinians locked in a four-year-old uprising against Israel. Suha Arafat has lived abroad for much of the uprising.

Addressing the delicate issue of where Arafat should be buried if he dies, Israel said on Sunday it had completed preparations for his eventual burial in the Gaza Strip.

Arafat wants to be buried in Jerusalem's Old City, which is holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians. But Israel refuses to let him be laid to rest on land it has annexed -- a move not recognised internationally.

- REUTERS