RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was in a stable condition, officials said as doctors arrived at his bedside to carry out tests and decide if he needs hospital treatment.
Arafat`s top aide said a decision would be made within hours on whether to transfer the 75-year-old veteran leader to hospital from the headquarters where he has been kept under virtual house arrest by Israel for almost three years.
The sharp decline in Arafat`s health has raised concerns over who would replace the man who has long been the embodiment of the decades-long Palestinian struggle for independence.
Arafat joined morning prayers for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and sent a message from his bedside to reassure his people and the rest of the world that he was "okay," according to members of his entourage.
The exact nature of Arafat`s illness is not known and there have been conflicting reports about his health. Some Palestinian officials said earlier this week he had been suffering a severe bout of flu, and denied reports that he had lost consciousness, although one described his condition as "critical."
A team of Jordanian doctors, including his personal physician arrived in Ramallah on Thursday and Arafat`s wife Suha is also travelling to the West Bank for the first time in several years to be at his bedside.
Top Palestinian leaders were also set to meet Thursday to examine the delicate question of succession should the veteran leader suddenly die.
"Doctors will decide in the next three hours if the president needs to be transferred to hospital or stay in his headquarters," Arafat`s top advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina told the scrum of reporters outside the Ramallah compound.
"His condition is stable and he needs to rest."
Israel -- which has long dismissed Arafat as an obstacle to the peace process and threatened to expel or even kill him -- said it would not impose any restrictions on his movements.
Asked if he would be allowed to return to the West Bank should he require medical attention abroad, Israeli government spokesman Ranaan Gissin told AFP: "Israel will not impose any restriction on Arafat`s movement for anything regarding the treatment he needs.
"If doctors think he heeds to be transferred to hospital and then returned, Israel will not impose any restrictions."
Another Israeli official said Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei spoke by telephone with his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon who pledged to do whatever was necessary for Arafat`s health.
Jordanian officials said they would help evacuate Arafat to one of its hospitals if his return to the West Bank was guaranteed by Israel.
A second team of medics from Egypt was also due to arrive in Ramallah later Thursday, while his wife Suha left Tunis along with their nine-year-old daughter Zahwa heading for Jordan and then the West Bank.
"The president wants to tell the Palestinian people and the whole world that he is okay and there is no need to worry about him," Munib al-Masri, a businessman close to Arafat, told reporters after a brief meeting with him.
Arafat has a history of health problems. With a tendency to shake slightly, he has been rumoured to suffer from Parkinson`s disease, but his personal physician claims the trembling is caused by "nervous tension".
Sources close to the Palestinian leader said he had undergone this week a gastroscopy -- an internal examination of the gullet and stomach -- which revealed nothing abnormal.
Arafat has been the dominant force in Palestinian politics for some four decades and his desire to cling on to power has meant no obvious successor has been able to emerge.
According to the terms of the Palestinian basic law, parliament speaker Rawhi Fattuh would be appointed as head of the Palestinian Authority for a maxium 60-day interim period in the event of Arafat`s death.
A Palestinian source said both Qorei and Mahmud Abbas, the deputy head of Arafat`s Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), were at the leader`s bedside.
Both men would be among the frontrunners to succeed Arafat in the case of his death or incapacitation.
News of the apparent worsening of his condition came just a day after Israeli lawmakers approved Sharon`s fiercely contested plan to pullout from the Gaza Strip next year.
Arafat`s departure from the political scene could be leapt on by Sharon`s opponents as an opportunity to derail his unilateral disengagement project.
Sharon, having declared Arafat an absolute obstacle to peace, has argued that he has no option but to pursue unilateral measures.
But critics on his left and right could now push for a delay to see if a new Palestinian leader emerges.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom raised the prospect of renewed talks with the Palestinians should Arafat die.
"Israel has no problem negotiating with a new Palestinian leadership as soon as it starts fighting against terror as the (Middle East peace) roadmap requires," Shalom told public radio.
"We have always been ready to negotiate with any Palestinian leadership which was committed to stopping the bloodshed."
10/28/2004 - 12:20 GMT - AFP