CLAMART, France (AFP) - A spokeswoman for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Leila Shahid, denied that he was brain dead, but said that the 75-year-old was "between life and death" and in a reversible coma in his hospital near Paris.
"He could wake up, but he could not wake up," Shahid told the private French radio station RTL on Friday.
When asked about a statement from a French medical source who said late on Thursday that Arafat was brain dead, and therefore in a state from which he could not recover, Shahid said: "I categorically deny that."
The coma was such that Arafat could stay in it "a long time" or "come out of it," she said.
Shahid said that all of Arafat's "vital organs" were functioning, adding that he had "opened his eyes and smiled" during a visit to the hospital by French President Jacques Chirac on Thursday afternoon.
The statement came amid widespread speculation over the fate of Arafat, who was transferred to a French hospital outside Paris on October 29.
Some reports on Thursday said the veteran Palestinian leader had died, but both French medical officials and Palestinian officials close to him have denied this.
Shahid criticised Israeli media for reporting Arafat's death on Thursday.
"Unfortunately I am obliged to say that Israel was indulging in disinformation when it announced the president's death at 2.00 p.m. yesterday, thereby encouraging the American president to express the hope that the good lord welcome his soul in paradise," she said.
Informed erroneously of Arafat's death Thursday, Bush said: "My first reaction is: God bless his soul."
According to Shahid, Arafat is in a "reversible coma because he was put under anaesthetic so that the necessary tests could be carried out, in other words an endoscopy, a coloscopy, biopsy of his spine marrow -- because we still have no diagnosis.
"All the vital organs are functioning. But without a diagnosis, and with no clue after six days of tests as to the nature of the disease, obviously that can lead to confusion," she said.
Arafat was airlifted from the West Bank a week ago and taken to the Percy military hospital in the southwestern Paris suburb of Clamart, where doctors have been trying to determine the blood disorder from which he is suffering.
After a series of optimistic repoorts from his entourage, on Wednesday it was revealed that his condition had deteriorated sharply and that he was in the intensive care unit.
A French medical source then told AFP late Thursday that Arafat was "brain dead" and breathing only thanks to artificial life support systems.
11/05/2004 - 11:37 GMT - AFP