Middle East: Four senior Palestinian leaders arrived in Paris last night to obtain first hand information about their leader, Mr Yasser Arafat. They are expected to seek to consult his doctors today, as well as the French government, to determine what to do next.
Their arrival in the city, after Mr Arafat's wife, Mrs Suha Arafat, accused them of conspiring to "bury him alive", raises the prospects of an unseemly squabble today as they try to visit Mr Arafat while she seeks to bar them from his bedside.
A hospital spokesman said last night that Mr Arafat's condition was "stable" and that his condition "limited the number of visitors he was allowed to receive". Previously the hospital has made clear that it was deferring to the wishes of Mr Arafat's family - which, in effect, means Mrs Arafat.
The hospital and Mrs Arafat continue to insist that Mr Arafat is alive.
Mrs Arafat made her allegations against the Palestinian leadership in an emotional statement to the Arabic satellite television channel, al-Jazeera, on Sunday. Mr Mahmud Abbas, acting head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Mr Ahmad Korei, the prime minister, and Mr Nabil Shaath, the foreign minister, responded initially by postponing their Paris journey.
However, after consulting cabinet colleagues and members of the Palestinian Authority, they decided to proceed and Mr Rawhi Fatouh, speaker of the Palestinian legislative council, was invited to join them.
The addition of Mr Fatouh is significant because, according to the Palestinian Basic Law, he is to assume Mr Arafat's powers if he can no longer carry out his duties as president of the Palestinian Authority.
The mission is seen as an attempt to maintain the unity the leadership has tried to foster since Mr Arafat collapsed two weeks ago.
Mrs Arafat, who was already very unpopular in the West Bank and Gaza, was castigated as a spoiler by both commentators and the populace. A group of Palestinian women belonging to Mr Arafat's Fateh movement assembled at the presidential compound to protest at her comments. Mr Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Islamist Hamas movement, said her statement reflected deep rivalries in the Palestine Authority which could only be overcome by a collective leadership.
Mr Hatem Abdel Kader, a deputy from Jerusalem, said: "Suha has tried to make Arafat's health strictly a family issue, but it is an issue for the whole Palestinian people. Their representatives have every right to know what is happening."
Before the row erupted, Palestinian and Israeli sources reported that Mr Arafat's life support system could be disconnected on Tuesday because it is generally believed that he is brain dead. If this is true, the final step could be postponed for a few days.
An informant close to the Muslim religious establishment in Jerusalem said that clerics argue it is unlawful to sustain life by extreme measures if a person has no hope of recovery. This ruling removes a potential obstacle to shutting down Mr Arafat's support system if this is warranted.
A Palestinian aid worker employed in West Bank refugee camps and towns stated that the situation must be clarified as soon as possible to avert an explosion. "People believe Arafat has been poisoned [ by Israel or the US]. They do not understand that he is being kept alive by machines and think there is some sort of conspiracy."
Dr Ziad Abu Amr, a lawmaker from Gaza, said that the Gaza Strip was calm. The common view there that Mr Arafat was poisoned was strengthened when Mr Korei said that the Palestinian Authority was not excluding any possibility in the diagnosis of Mr Arafat's still unidentified ailment.