Jerusalem - Political leaders in Israel and the West Bank steeled themselves for the end of the Yasser Arafat era as the vanguard of the Palestinian nationalist struggle lay brain dead in a Paris hospital.
Palestinian officials on Thursday fiercely denied that Arafat had passed away, after Israeli media reported that the 75-year-old had died.
But while French medical sources said Arafat was technically still alive, they added that he was brain dead and was breathing only with the help of life support machines while in an irreversible coma.
Technically, Arafat is "not dead", one source said on condition of confidentiality. But there was no hope of his leaving his vegetative state and recovering basic bodily functions such as breathing without assistance.
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Such artificial care could be "extended for several days or several weeks thanks to the machines", the source said.
Israel's private Channel 2 network and army radio had reported that Arafat had been declared dead at a military hospital in Clamart, south-west of Paris.
But Azzam al-Ahmed, communications minister in the Palestinian cabinet and one of Arafat's closest allies, insisted that news of his death was premature.
"It is wrong. If the president was dead, the whole world would know," he said. "But it is true that he is in a very critical condition."
Arafat was flown to Paris last Friday for treatment of a blood disorder after being airlifted from the compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah where he had been under effective Israeli house arrest for nearly three years.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei had earlier tried to play down the seriousness of Arafat's condition, denying he was in a coma and insisting that new test results had been positive.
Qorei had been attending emergency leadership meetings of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the dominant Fatah party.
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