Doctors say Arafat improving, rule out leukaemia

1.00pm

CLAMART, France - French doctors said Yasser Arafat was responding to treatment and ruled out leukaemia, though aides said the Palestinian leader could remain in a French military hospital for several more weeks.

Arafat was well enough to follow the US presidential election and had taken calls from heads of state and senior Palestinian officials, said aides in the southwestern Paris suburb where the 75-year-old leader is being treated.

Initial tests "confirmed the abnormal blood count, high white blood cell count and low platelet count and ruled out a diagnosis of leukaemia," Palestinian envoy to Paris Leila Shahid said in a statement read to journalists.

The statement, drawn up by doctors at the Percy military hospital and approved by Arafat, was the first by the hospital since his admission and broadly confirmed aides' comments.

It said there had been a "general improvement" in his condition over his first three days in hospital, which allowed doctors to perform more tests.

"Pathology tests have shown an improvement in his white blood cell count and persistent abnormalities in some biological constants concerning the digestive function," the statement said.

Arafat was rushed to France from his shell-battered compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah last Friday with severe stomach pains, diarrhoea and vomiting and what doctors said at the time could be leukaemia.

Aides said he would likely remain in hospital for at least another three weeks.

"As long as Arafat remains in a healthy place and is receiving proper medical care he will improve tremendously. If he returns to the Muqata (compound) in Ramallah he will have a setback," Mohammed Dahlan, a Palestinian former interior minister, told Reuters.

"By Saturday the doctors will most probably have the final diagnosis. Then he will need some time for treatment. It could take three to four weeks. But it all depends on the diagnosis of the doctors," a senior aide said.

Arafat, for decades a symbol of the Palestinian struggle with Israel for a state, had been in effect confined to his offices by Israeli forces for the past 2-1/2 years.

Israel accuses Arafat of fomenting violence in an uprising against Israeli occupation that broke out in 2000, which he denies. Under President George W Bush, Washington has tried to shut him out of the Middle East picture.

Aides, keen to present Arafat as still in charge, said he was watching Tuesday's US elections but refused to be drawn on whether he preferred Bush or Democratic challenger John Kerry.

"Arafat is following the American elections and he will be watching closely ... because it will have a huge impact on the Palestinians," senior aide Mohammad Rashid told Reuters.

Arafat called an aide to condemn a suicide bombing which killed four people including the bomber in Tel Aviv on Monday. He also spoke to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie and other Arab leaders, aides said.

- REUTERS