PARIS (AFP) - A French airforce plane carrying Yasser Arafat landed at a military airport outside Paris, and officials said the ailing Palestinian leader would likely be transferred by helicopter to a nearby military hospital for medical treatment.
The Dassault Falcon jet which took a visibly weak Arafat on board in the Jordanian capital Amman touched down at the Villacoublay airbase just southwest of the capital at 1:30 pm (1130 GMT).
The initial four-hour flight time had been extended by more than an hour because the plane had no authorisation to fly through Israeli airspace, according to French defence ministry officials.
Arafat, the 75-year-old living symbol of the Palestinian struggle for statehood, has been struck down by what one of his doctors said was a potentially fatal blood disorder.
He is to receive urgent treatment at the Percy military hospital close to Paris.
A French military official at the airbase said Arafat would likely be taken to the facility by helicopter rather than by road because of the large number of journalists waiting outside.
The six-year-old hospital boasts state of the art technology and a staff of 1,200 for its 430 beds. Among its specialisations is the treatment and study of blood illnesses.
It was named after the early 19th century figure Pierre-Francois Percy, the top army surgeon during Napoleon`s campaigns who devised horse-and-chariot ambulances to care for the wounded on the battlefield.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whose troops have kept Arafat under house arrest in his West Bank compound of Ramallah for the past three years, allowed a helicopter to take the Palestinian leader to Jordan and has promised he will allow Arafat to return.
France, a longtime supporter of Palestinian aspirations for an independent state, agreed to take Arafat in for treatment after his condition badly deteriorated this week.
10/29/2004 - 12:08 GMT - AFP