RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - Palestinians looked ahead to a future without Yasser Arafat after the man who led their fight for independence for decades was laid to rest in a frenzied outpouring of grief.
In stark contrast to Friday's scenes of mayhem in Ramallah, Arafat's successors and a stream of mourners gathered solemnly for prayers at his grave in the Muqataa compound that had been a virtual prison for the last years of his life.
Palestinians also began preparing for elections due to be held in two months time, while US President George W. Bush pledged he would mobilise the international community to work towards the creation of a Palestinian state.
In Ramallah, newly appointed Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman Mahmud Abbas, prime minister Ahmed Qorei and the caretaker head of the Palestinian Authority Rawhi Fattuh knelt at Arafat's marble tomb, all visibly moved.
Arafat's nephew Nasser al-Qidwa, the Palestinian representatives to the United Nations, also attended the intimate morning prayer service for the start of Eid al-Fitr festivities marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Afterwards, ordinary residents of Ramallah trickled past the burial site, reciting verses of the Koran and kneeling at the grave of the only leader most of them had ever known, a man who championed their cause for two generations.
Arafat, who died on Thursday at age 75 in a French hospital, was laid to rest Friday at his West Bank headquarters in a raucous display of grief, as thousands packed into the Muqataa to catch a last glimpse of their leader.
Security forces fired into the air in order to disperse mourners who mobbed the coffin carrying Arafat's body from Cairo, where Egypt laid on a funeral with full military honors.
The coffin was placed in a grave topped with soil from Arafat's beloved Jerusalem, which he hoped to one day claim as the capital of an independent Palestinian state, a Palestinian flag and Arafat's trademark keffiyeh.
His death has been seen by many as an opportunity to revive the moribund Middle East peace process, and in Washington on Friday, Bush -- Israel's top ally -- promised to rally the international community to the cause.
"I believe we've got a great chance to establish a Palestinian state. I would like to see it done in four years. I think it is possible," Bush said after a summit with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Blair said a future Palestinian state must be nothing less than a "proper democratic state," but insisted that the first priority was to "make sure that the Palestinian elections take place.
Fattuh will serve as caretaker head of the PA for 60 days, at which time elections must be held under Palestinian basic law, or the mini-constitution.
"I hope Europe and the United States will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us in order to carry out the presidential elections," Palestinian negotiations minister Saeb Erakat told AFP.
"If we can do that, the transition will be smooth and will take the Palestinians towards democracy, pluralism and peace."
Erakat said the key question was: "Is Israel ready to deliver the requirements for peace? If not, I'm afraid we'll be sliding deeper and deeper into chaos, lawlessness and so on."
Since coming to power in early 2001, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had boycotted Arafat, rejecting him as an unsuitable partner for peace.
But Sharon met several times with Abbas during his brief stint as prime minister last year, and the new PLO leader also earned favor in Washington.
The United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- the so-called Middle East diplomatic quartet -- are the sponsors of the troubled roadmap that foresees the creation of a Palestinian state in 2005.
But that deadline has been all but scuppered in the wake of four years of deadly violence.
Bush offered no substantive ways to advance the peace process, dodging a question on whether he would push for a freeze on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and hedging on whether he would offer to host a peace conference.
"I hope the US administration will reach the right conclusions and reconsider its policies," Jibril Rajub, chief of security in the West Bank and Arafat's former security advisor, told AFP.
"In the last four years, the obstacle to peace was Sharon. I think a Palestinian state is of regional interest and international interest, as peace and stability are of international interest."

11/13/2004 - 10:36 GMT - AFP