Arafat slides further into coma

By Ed O'Loughlin

November 10, 2004

Yasser Arafat has slipped deeper into a coma, a doctor at the French hospital where he is being treated said last night.

Christian Estripeau, chief doctor at the Percy hospital in Clamart, near Paris, said Mr Arafat's health had worsened considerably.

"The comatose state that led to his admission into intensive care is deeper," he said. "That marks a significant step towards an evolution which cannot yet be determined."

The doctor refused to elaborate, but a Palestinian official said: "Day by day, his organs are functioning on stop-and-go. He's deteriorating by the day. He has not come out of coma since Wednesday. It's a matter of time."

The hospital issued its announcement as four senior Palestinian officials arrived in Paris in a bid to end a bizarre stand-off with Mr Arafat's wife.

Led by Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie and acting PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the officials were scheduled to meet French President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Michel Barnier to seek permission to visit Mr Arafat.

Their visit is widely seen as a bid to bypass Suha Arafat, who is using her wife's privileges under French law to forbid even close aides from visiting their leader or obtaining information about his condition.

Many Palestinians accuse Mr Arafat's 41-year-old wife of trying to keep him nominally alive so she can continue to profit from secret Palestinian funds under his control. Mrs Arafat was already deeply unpopular with ordinary Palestinians because she chose to live in Paris throughout the present uprising and failed to visit her husband until he fell ill last month. French authorities are investigating mysterious cash transfers she received of more than $US11 million ($A14.5 million).

On Sunday, Mrs Arafat went live on al-Jazeera television and screamed that Mr Arafat's deputies were travelling to Paris to "bury him alive".

- with Reuters