RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinians were planning for a smooth transfer of power in the event of Yasser Arafat's death at a series of high-level political and security meetings while the veteran leader battled for life in a French hospital.
Health bulletins from France, where Arafat has been treated for the last nine days, said the 75-year-old remained in a coma although his position was stable.
While Arafat lies in intensive care in the Percy military hospital on the southwestern outskirts of Paris, his former prime minister Mahmud Abbas and current premier Ahmed Qorei have assumed control of the major Palestinian institutions.
Qorei, who is at the helm of the Palestinian Authority in Arafat's absence, was to chair a meeting of the national security council before a meeting of the dominant Fatah faction, presided over by Abbas, officials said.
The two men were then expected to join a meeting with leaders of other factions such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) in the evening.
The militant Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad will not attend the evening meeting but Qorei held talks with representatives of both factions in the Gaza Strip on Saturday where all parties agreed on the need for a united front if Arafat fails to recover.
"Taking up arms is not a solution," Qorei told a press conference after Saturday's meeting. "Any domestic problem must be solved by national dialogue. This is the only way."
Hamas, which has so far resisted pressure from Qorei to halt their campaign of anti-Israeli attacks, said there was a consensus on the need to maintain a united front.
"We told the prime minister that we want to preserve Palestinian unity and that we will hold dialogue to resolve all conflict," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters. "No-one wants to take up arms."
Abbas is emerging as the chief player in the Palestinian fold while Arafat hovers between life and death.
If Abbas can cement his control, it could galvanise the moribund Middle East peace process. While Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US President George W. Bush have snubbed Arafat, Abbas was a guest of both men during his brief tenure as prime minister last year.
Abbas on Saturday chaired a meeting of the PLO's executive committee, whose members sent congratulations to Bush for his re-election and expressed their desire to work with him towards the implementation of the roadmap peace plan, which targets the creation of an independent Palestinian state next year.
Sharon has already vowed that he will not accede to his old enemy's desire to be buried in Jerusalem and would rather see him laid to rest in the Gaza Strip.
Such a move would be seen as a major humiliation for Arafat who has been at the forefront of the struggle for a Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital, for the best part of half a century.
Ofir Pines, a leading MP for Israel's main opposition Labour party, said Sunday that Arafat should be allowed to be buried in Jerusalem in exchange for a lasting halt to anti-Israeli attacks.
"Israel should give its consent for his funeral to take place in (occupied) east Jerusalem, on the condition that the Palestinians pledge -- in accordance with the United States, the Europeans and the UN -- to start down the path of dialogue and to renounce violence," Pines told Israeli public radio.
Palestinian officials continue to insist that their leader can make a full recovery.
Arafat advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina rejected suggestions Saturday that the Palestinian leader was was now brain dead and only being kept alive with the help of a life support machine.
"Despite President Arafat's critical state of health his condition has not reached a stage that is irreversible, as some media have reported, and we hope his condition will improve in the coming days," Abu Rudeina said.
11/07/2004 - 11:18 GMT - AFP