PARIS, Nov. 10 - The Israeli government agreed today to a Palestinian request that Yasir Arafat, who is clinging to life in a military hospital near Paris, be buried in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
A statement issued by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said, "It is our intention to allow the funeral and burial in Ramallah.''
Once Mr. Arafat is dead, his body will be flown first to Cairo, where an Egyptian government official was quoted as saying today that memorial services would be held at the airport. Mr. Arafat spent many of his early years in Egypt, and by some accounts was even born there, though he has disputed that. After the service, Mr. Arafat's body will be taken to Ramallah, where Mr. Arafat was holed up in his battered compound by the Israelis for close to three years.
An Egyptian presidential spokesman, Maged Abdel-Fatah, said the services would be "limited in scope,'' Agence-France Presse reported.
Later today the Palestinian foreign minister, Nabil Shaath, said Mr. Arafat had suffered liver and kidney failure and was now "at a very critical stage.'' Mr. Arafat's "heart is pounding quite well and his lungs are still functioning,'' Mr. Shaath said in a CNN interview from Ramallah.
Mr. Shaath said he had asked Secretary of State Colin L. Powell whether he would be able to attend the Ramallah internment, but had so far received no reply. "We hope he or someone senior will come,'' he added.
Mr. Shaath also asked whether Israel would now recognize that there is "a Palestinian partner and there is a road map to be followed and there is a peace process to be committed to.'' He added: "I think that's the question. We have been ready, we are ready now.''
In another indication of Mr. Arafat's impending death, a senior Muslim cleric, Taissir Dayut Tamimi, arrived today at the Palestinian leader's bedside. Mr. Tamimi, the head of the Islamic court in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said his trip to Paris was intended "to be near President Arafat at this crucial time." He is likely to be asked to wash the body, and would also provide another credible witness to Mr. Arafat's demise.
Today, Mr. Tamimi told reporters after seeing Mr. Arafat and reading Koranic verses at his bedside: "He is sick and his condition is very difficult, but he remains alive. As long as there is a manifestation of life present, from movement to temperature in the body, then he is alive.''
The choice of Ramallah as a burial site seemed to be a concession to Israel, which has steadfastly refused to allow Mr. Arafat's own preference for burial in Jerusalem.
The issue grew more critical as the condition of the 75-year-old Palestinian leader has worsened. But the apparent pragmatism driving the Palestinians offers a hint that their coming leadership may be more open to compromise.
In Ramallah, the cabinet secretary, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, said the Palestinian leadership had decided that Mr. Arafat would be buried there, in his headquarters, the Muqata. "If the fate of God comes, all the arrangements will be made here in the Muqata, which is considered a symbol of Palestinian steadfastness," he said.
The Israelis favored Gaza, since it is isolated and Mr. Arafat's father and sister are buried there. But Israeli officials do not want to give any unnecessary reason for unrest in the Palestinian territories, officials say.
On Tuesday a four-man delegation of Mr. Arafat's top aides and potential heirs visited the hospital where he has been treated since Oct. 29. One of those aides, Mr. Shaath, described Mr. Arafat's condition as "critical," but said that his brain, heart and lungs were still functioning and that his removal from life support systems had been ruled out.
"He is alive," Mr. Shaath, the Palestinian foreign minister, said of Mr. Arafat, the guerrilla fighter and Nobel Peace Prize winner who has symbolized the Palestinian struggle for statehood for four decades. "He will live or die on the ability of his body to resist - and on the will of God."
Speaking at a news conference in a Paris hotel, Mr. Shaath also said doctors treating Mr. Arafat had excluded cancer and poisoning as a cause of his illness, but still had not been able to pinpoint the precise cause.
"We don't have a full understanding of why his state has deteriorated, which means we don't really have a full diagnosis," Mr. Shaath said. But he said doctors blamed in part Mr. Arafat's age and his long confinement in his unsanitary and cramped headquarters in Ramallah by Israeli forces for his declining health.
On a day flooded with unconfirmed reports and official denials that Mr. Arafat was dead, Mr. Shaath said, "I don't see any reason to make rumors precipitating his death or hoping for a quick recovery," adding: "I want to rule out any question of euthanasia. People talk like his life is plugged in and plugged out."
Mr. Shaath's appearance on Tuesday was the first time that the Palestinians have been able to report with authority on Mr. Arafat's condition.
It follows an angry, unseemly battle with Mr. Arafat's 41-year-old wife, Suha, who has used the protection of French law to forbid the Palestinian leadership access to her husband and his doctors and to bar the release of any detailed information about his health.
The four-man delegation of Mr. Arafat's potential heirs, which included Mr. Shaath, visited the hospital where he has been treated since Oct. 29.
Of the four Palestinian leaders, only Ahmed Qurei, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, was allowed to see Mr. Arafat, Mr. Shaath said. Mr. Qurei spent about two hours by his bedside.
The other members of the Palestinian delegation included Mahmoud Abbas, secretary general and No.2 in the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Rawhi Fattouh, the speaker of the Parliament, an Arafat loyalist. Palestinian law says that in the event of Mr. Arafat's death, the speaker becomes president of the Palestinian Authority for 60 days, and elections must be held for a successor.
Mr. Abbas is the most likely successor, to Mr. Arafat, and he has made common cause with Mr. Qurei. Neither is especially popular among Palestinians, with little of the street credibility and aura that surrounded Mr. Arafat.
The delegation was warmly received in separate meetings on Tuesday with President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, an important political gesture giving more weight to the emerging leadership now gathered in Paris.
Both official meetings were largely ceremonial rather than substantive, French officials said. The Palestinian delegation warmly thanked Mr. Chirac for arranging Mr. Arafat's transfer to Paris and medical care.
Mr. Chirac called Mr. Arafat "a friend" and pledged his commitment to mobilize the Europeans to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, Palestinian officials said. The two sides also spoke about the need for a structured, disciplined transfer of power under the Palestinians' constitution in the event of Mr. Arafat's death.
In the news conference, on Tuesday, Mr. Shaath struggled tried to minimize differences with Mrs. Arafat, dismissing angry remarks she made Monday as an "accident of psychological tensions."
He described Mrs. Arafat at the hospital on Tuesday as a weeping woman under stress, who embraced the members of the delegation.
"We assured her of our love and sympathy," he said. "We never talked about money." He was alluding to rumors that Mrs. Arafat was demanding more money from the Palestinians.
The first report that Mr. Arafat's health had deteriorated further came Tuesday morning, when Gen. Christian Estripeau, the hospital spokesman, told journalists that Mr. Arafat's health had "worsened during the night" and that "the comatose state that led to his admission into intensive care" had deepened.
After Reuters, citing unidentified Palestinian officials, reported that Mr. Arafat had died, General Estripeau told Agence France-Presse, "Mr. Arafat is not dead."
In Gaza on Tuesday night, about 300 armed members of Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades marched through the streets, firing guns and shouting their devotion to Mr. Arafat. Despite a Palestinian legislative council request that all factions refrain from displaying or using firearms, the militants shot freely in the air. Using Mr. Arafat's nom de guerre, they chanted, "Israel bears responsibility for all that happens to Abu Ammar!"
In Rafah, near the Egyptian border, there was another march through the streets by Palestinians displaying support for Mr. Arafat.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, Saeb Erakat, Palestinian negotiations minister, was quoted as saying doctors were trying to stop Mr. Arafat's brain from hemorrhaging.
In Paris, the Palestinian delegation, which was departing for home on Tuesday night, struggled to give the impression that there was a possibility that its leader might recover.
After their meeting at Élysée Palace with Mr. Chirac, Mr. Abbas told reporters: "President Arafat is in a very difficult situation. We wish him a swift recovery." The first report that Mr. Arafat's health had deteriorated further came Tuesday morning, when Gen. Christian Estripeau, the hospital spokesman, told journalists that Mr. Arafat's health had "worsened during the night" and that "the comatose state that led to his admission into intensive care" had deepened.
After Reuters, citing unidentified Palestinian officials, reported that Mr. Arafat had died, General Estripeau told Agence France-Presse, "Mr. Arafat is not dead."
In Gaza on Tuesday night, about 300 armed members of Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades marched through the streets, firing guns and shouting their devotion to Mr. Arafat. Despite a Palestinian legislative council request that all factions refrain from displaying or using firearms, the militants shot freely in the air. Using Mr. Arafat's nom de guerre, they chanted, "Israel bears responsibility for all that happens to Abu Ammar!"
In Rafah, near the Egyptian border, there was another march through the streets by Palestinians displaying support for Mr. Arafat.
In the West Bank, meanwhile, Saeb Erakat, Palestinian negotiations minister, was quoted as saying doctors were trying to stop Mr. Arafat's brain from hemorrhaging.
In Paris, the Palestinian delegation, which was departing for home on Tuesday night, struggled to give the impression that there was a possibility that its leader might recover.
After their meeting at Élysée Palace with Mr. Chirac, Mr. Abbas told reporters: "President Arafat is in a very difficult situation. We wish him a swift recovery."
By ELAINE SCIOLINO and TERENCE NEILAN
Elaine Sciolino reported from Paris for this article and Terence Neilan reported from New York. Steven Erlanger and Greg Myre contributed reporting from Jerusalem.
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