CLAMART, France (AFP) - Yasser Arafat remained in a coma in a French hospital as the Palestinian and Israeli governments made preparations to prevent a descent into anarchy in the event of the veteran leader`s death.
A spokeswoman for Arafat denied that the 75-year-old was brain dead but admitted he was comatose and "between life and death".
"He could wake up, but he could not wake up," Leila Shahid, one of a handful of people authorised to visit Arafat, told French radio on Friday.
The coma was such that Arafat, who has personified the Palestinian fight for a homeland for nearly half a century, could stay in it "a long time" or "come out of it," she said.
French medical sources had said Thursday that Arafat was "brain dead" and only breathing with the help of life support machines at a military hospital in Clamart on the southwestern outskirts of Paris.
It marked a dramatic deterioration for Arafat who was airlifted a week ago out of his West Bank headquarters, where he had been kept under virtual house arrest by Israel for nearly three years.
While insisting that talk of Arafat`s permanent demise was premature, Palestinian officials were trying to make sure that his death does not leave a power vacuum or trigger an outbreak of violence in a society where the number of gunmen has mushroomed during the four-year uprising against Israel.
All the branches of the Palestinian security services were placed on maximum alert late Thursday while senior representatives of all the main Palestinian factions, including Arafat`s Fatah movement and the Islamist group Hamas, were meeting in Gaza City Friday.
Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei on Friday met his predecessor Mahmud Abbas, who has taken the helm of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which has been led by Arafat since 1969, as well as Fatah.
Israeli authorities were trying to keep the lid on the simmering situation. Their security forces have also been placed on top alert, and any Palestinian man under the age of 50 was being barred from entering from the occupied territories.
Tight security was imposed around Jerusalem`s Al-Aqsa mosque compound during Friday prayers where around 100,000 Palestinians prayed for Arafat on the fourth Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
But there was no sign of mass demonstrations on behalf of Arafat who has presided over an increasingly corrupt administration while his people continue to grapple with a 37-year occupation and its accompanying poverty and violence.
The European Union expressed solidarity Friday for the Palestinians but also urged a "legitimate leadership" to pursue peace with Israel.
French President Jacques Chirac, who attended the EU summit in Brussels which made the declaration, refused to give details on Arafat`s condition, saying only that the Palestinian leader was "in the hands of excellent doctors who are doing all they can for his health."
Israelis were meanwhile trying to absorb the implications of the apparent end of the Arafat era.
Some could barely contain their delight over the demise of Arafat, described by the Israeli government as "our own Bin Laden".
Hatzofe, the mouthpiece of the Jewish settler movement, ran the headline "Arafat Alive -- Until the Current is Shut Off".
Israeli ministers have been trying to avoid commenting on Arafat`s condition amid the conflicting reports about his status, nor do they want to be seen endorsing a potential successor.
However, Arafat`s death has the potential to galvanise the moribund peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, with Abbas emerging as the front runner in the succession race.
While Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US President George W. Bush have boycotted Arafat for the last four years, Abbas was a guest of both during his brief premiership last year.
Bush, buoyed by his solid re-election victory, expressed hope Thursday of making "good progress" in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his second term, with analysts expecting the end of Arafat`s reign could lead to a greater US role.

11/05/2004 - 16:57 GMT - AFP