Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has been weakened by a bad case of flu but his condition is not life-threatening, aides said on Thursday after his pale appearance set the rumour mill spinning.

?He is not dying,? a Palestinian official close to Arafat, 74, told Reuters, denying a report in the British newspaper The Guardian that he had a mild heart attack last week.

Arafat, a veteran symbol of Palestinian aspirations for independence, appeared to many observers to be frail during the swearing in ceremony on Tuesday of his new cabinet.

Arafat planned to attend a session of the Palestinian parliament later on yesterday where Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, presenting the new nine-member cabinet, was expected to urge a return to peacemaking stalled by violence, officials said.

In an interview published in Israel?s Maariv newspaper on Wednesday, Qurie proposed a ceasefire to Israel. An Israeli cabinet minister immediately rejected his offer and called instead on Qurie to fight Palestinian militant groups.

Arafat swore in the cabinet on Tuesday and its ninth member was appointed yesterday. He declared a state of emergency on Sunday after Israeli ministers renewed calls to ?remove? him following a suicide bombing that killed 19 people in Israel.

A senior aide said an Egyptian medical team headed by President Hosni Mubarak?s private physician had examined Arafat at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

?They took blood samples and carried out several tests,? he said. ?Their initial findings were that he had a very strong flu and stomach virus, but the final results will be given to us tonight.?

As a result of the illness, Arafat did not eat solid foods for 10 days and could not even keep soup down, aides said.

Israel says Arafat?s condition not serious

Arafat had lost a lot of weight but his appearance had improved over the past three days and he has been more alert, the aides said.

Arafat, who sometimes shakes in public, emerged from his headquarters on September 29 looking well and cheerful to dispel rumours he was in poor health. Palestinian doctors said then he was suffering from a mild bout of influenza but that a medical team summoned from Jordan gave him a clean bill of health.

A senior Israeli military source said Arafat?s ailment did not appear to be life-threatening. ?We don?t think his life is at risk. From what we know, he had some problems with his stomach. He is weak a little bit, he is operating. He is taking part in meetings. It was not a heart attack,? the source said.

In remarks to the Palestinian daily al-Quds yesterday, Arafat said he had suffered stomach pains but was recovering. ?People around him are afraid of complications because of his age but especially because of the unhealthy situation he is living in, in his office,? another senior aide said.

?Others are looking into the possibility that he might have been poisoned, so the... medical team has taken blood samples.?

Israeli army roadblocks and patrols have kept Arafat confined to his battered Muqata compound for the past two years.

Dispute over emergency powers

Israel responded to suicide bombings last month by issuing an open-ended threat to ?remove? Arafat as an obstacle to implementing a US-backed peace plan known as the road map.

It accuses him of fomenting violence in a three-year-old Palestinian uprising for statehood, an allegation he denies.

A session of the Palestinian parliament to ratify a new cabinet was postponed indefinitely yesterday because of a dispute over whether the ministers should have emergency powers, an official said.

Ibrahim Ibrahim Abu al-Naja, acting parliamentary speaker, told Reuters no new date had been set for the meeting, which had been scheduled for yesterday. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat swore in an emergency cabinet on Tuesday, but since then some lawmakers have voiced opposition to its makeup and agenda.

Mohammed Assadi