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| Arafat should be in Paris within
24 hours (Agencies) |
Ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is
suffering from a low blood
platelet
count and will be flown to Paris on Friday for medical
treatment.
The Palestinian
Authority, the prime minister and legislative council will take over leadership in his
absence.
Arab doctors have been examining Mr Arafat, 75, at his half-ruined
compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Mr Arafat will fly by helicopter to the Jordanian capital Amman, then
to Paris.
Nabil abu Rudeinah said that Palestinian officials were satisfied that
Israel would allow Mr Arafat to return to Ramallah when his medical
condition allowed.
Guarantees had been obtained from the US, Europe and the Arab world and
agreed to by Israel, he added.
Earlier, the French presidency said that France will send a plane to
pick up Mr Arafat.
Jordanian helicopters will take the
Palestinian leader to Amman from his Muqata compound in Ramallah at dawn on
Friday.
Sources inside his Ramallah headquarters said Paris was a serious
option because of its advanced medical facilities.
Mr Arafat's doctor, Ashraf Kurdi, confirmed that the veteran leader was
suffering from low blood platelets and needed further tests.
He insisted that Mr Arafat had not been poisoned
and was not suffering from leukaemia
.
Washington has said it hopes Mr Arafat will get the "medical care that
he needs to return to health".
Suha Arafat, the leader's wife, arrived at the compound on Thursday to
see her husband for the first time in four years.
Her arrival from France came as Palestinian officials released video of
her husband sitting in the company of doctors.
Dressed in a light blue tracksuit and a woolly hat, Mr Arafat is shown
wan and pale but smiling in the footage, said to have been shot at 1300
local time (1100 GMT).
Israel, which has long held Mr Arafat
responsible for militant violence, is probably keen not to be seen as
responsible in any way for the death of the Palestinian leader.
Israeli sources said they were treating the matter
as a humanitarian issue.
Earlier reports spoke of severe flu and possible
gallstone trouble.
There is a huge sense among Palestinians that this is a moment of
crisis, the BBC's Alan Johnston reports from Gaza City, where he spoke to
people in Palestine Square.
He says there is little talk now of Mr Arafat's
failings as an administrator and ordinary Palestinians are very much
hoping that the old man, as they often call him, will pull through
.
In Ramallah, shoe merchant Jawad Juda, 50, told Reuters news agency
that Mr Arafat was "the head of the whole Palestinian household".
"I'm afraid if he dies, there will be no authority - it will be a
catastrophe for our people," he added.
Having led the Palestinian struggle for statehood
for nearly 40 years, Mr Arafat is seen by Palestinians as an irreplaceable
figurehead
, the
BBC's Lucy Williamson reports from Jerusalem.
As perhaps the only person capable of uniting
the many different Palestinian groups, he has no obvious successor.
(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2004-10-29 09:53