Arafat's body arrives in Cairo for funeral

12.00pm

CAIRO - The body of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has arrived in Cairo from Paris for a military funeral which presidents and other dignitaries from around the world are due to attend.

Arafat, the symbol of Palestinian aspirations since the 1960s, died early on Thursday in a Paris hospital. After the Cairo ceremonies, his body is due to be flown back to the West Bank town of Ramallah for burial.

Officials said his body would be kept in an Egyptian military hospital until funeral ceremonies expected to begin at 11am (10pm NZT) on Friday.

Arab and Muslim heads of state and government, as well as leaders and ministers from around the world, will take part in a military funeral procession expected to start after prayers at a mosque on the edge of Cairo, officials said.

Egypt's official Middle East News Agency said traffic would be redirected and the public kept away. A public ceremony is to be held in central Cairo's al-Azhar mosque on Friday.

Security sources said that after the funeral, Arafat's body would be flown by plane and helicopter to Ramallah, where he is due to be buried in the compound Israeli forces confined him to for over 2-1/2 years.

The compound, known as the "Muqata", is itself now a symbol of the struggle for the state Arafat never lived to see. A top Palestinian cleric told Reuters he would be buried in a concrete coffin that could later be moved to Jerusalem.

PREPARATIONS UNDERWAY

The Arab League said it would open a book of condolences on Friday for Arab and foreign dignitaries to sign over the next three days. The organisation will hold a special commemoration session on Saturday at noon.

World leaders expected to attend the Cairo ceremonies include South African President Thabo Mbeki, King Abdullah of Jordan, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

Among others, the presidents of Algeria, Bangladesh, Yemen and Indonesia are expected, as are the prime ministers of Turkey, Pakistan and Sweden. Many countries are sending foreign ministers including France, Germany, Britain, Spain, and Iran.

Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid confirmed his government had no plans to send a delegation.

"This is a splendid new idea. Nobody ever suggested this to me," he told CNN. "No, I do not usually think we should send a representative to the funeral of somebody who killed thousands of our people."

The United States, which has refused to deal with Arafat for the past two and a half years, will send the relatively low-level Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, reflecting Washington's view that Arafat was a "failed leader" who clung to power too long.

Officials said Cairo had been chosen so Arab leaders and dignitaries unable to travel to the West Bank, which is under Israeli occupation, could attend.

Egypt has been a key mediator in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict after signing its own peace treaty with Israel in 1979, the first Arab state to do so. The treaty was condemned by many Palestinians and much of the Arab world at the time.

Biographies say Arafat was born in Cairo in 1929, although Arafat himself said he was born in Jerusalem.

He studied engineering at Cairo University, and began his political life there by taking over the Palestinian Students' League in 1952. He spoke Arabic with an Egyptian accent.

He was also a regular visitor to Egypt throughout much of his life as head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

- REUTERS