The people looked to their leadership to lift confusion over Yasser Arafat’s fate in a French hospital yesterday as preparations gathered pace to bury the icon of the fight for a state. Arafat, 75, suffered a brain haemorrhage on Tuesday at the hospital where he was flown from the West Bank on Oct. 29 and had lain in a coma. Officials insisted in public that he was alive, though aides said privately that he was dead. In four decades leading the Palestinian nationalist cause, Arafat has gone from guerrilla to Nobel prize-winning peacemaker to a shunned old leader facing renewed bloodshed with Israel.

His dream of a Palestinian state remains unrealised, a possible succession battle is brewing and the threat of chaos in Palestinian territories is looming. He has been widely admired by Palestinians as the father of their struggle for statehood but was reviled by many Israelis as the face of terror. Nonetheless, both sides have wondered whether his death might serve as the catalyst for the first real peace effort in years or plunge the region into deeper crisis.

<B>Conditions and plans for future</B>

A delegation of three senior leaders returned to the West Bank from Paris early yesterday ahead of an expected announcement after 0900 GMT on Arafat’s condition and plans for the future.

Officials said it was likely that a funeral would be held in Cairo followed by a burial in Ramallah at the shell-battered “Muqata” compound where Arafat had been effectively confined by Israeli troops for 2-1/2 years. After ruling out the burial in the holy city of Jerusalem that Arafat wanted, Israeli officials had said they wanted him interred in the Gaza Strip. But political sources said they might lift objections to Ramallah.

Workers installed extra communications links at the Muqata to be able to beam pictures worldwide. “We are not sure about the day of burial, but I was told most likely on Friday,” said one Palestinian official who did not want to be named. “The body might be flown to Egypt today.” Initial claims that he was suffering from a stomach ailment soon gave way to widespread reports that he had slipped into a coma and that his organs were failing. French doctors kept a tight lid on details of Arafat’s condition at the behest of his wife, Suha, who engaged in a war of words with senior Palestinians officials over her virtual monopoly on information from his hospital bedside.

Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie saw Arafat on Tuesday. The other members of the delegation, Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath and Palestine Liberation Organisation Secretary General Mahmoud Abbas, were unable to. Most of Arafat’s powers have been take over by Qurie and Abbas, both leading moderates. Arafat’s death would call for parliament speaker Rawhi Fattouh to assume the presidency in a caretaker capacity for 60 days until elections could be held.

BIOGRAPHY

<B>The path of a leader</B>

<B>Aug 4 1929: Born in Cairo, Egypt, fifth child of Palestinian merchant.</B>

1949: Formed Palestinians students league in Cairo.

1964: Arab League sponsors the founding of the PLO.

Aug 1956: Attended International students Congress in Prague, secured membership for Palestine.

Jan 1 1965: Formed Fata guerilla movement.

March 21 1968: Israeli Army attacked PLO based at Karameh, Jordan, inflicting heavy losses, but boosting PLO membership.

Feb 4 1969: Arafat takes over chairmanship of the PLO; fights King Hussein’s forces in Jordan in operation ‘Black September’ and is driven to Lebanon in 1970.

1972: ‘Black September’ Terrorist group allegedly Palestinian guerillas storm the Olympic Village in Munich and kill nine Israeli athletes.

Nov 13 1974: Addressed UN general assembly.

June 6 1982: Israel attacked PLO in Lebanon; Arafat and loyalist flew to Beirut.

1983: Arafat moves headquarters to Tunis, Tunisia.

1987: Arafat proclaims the PLO ‘as government in exile’ of the state of Palestine.

1988: PLO formally recognizes Israel’s right to exist; declares that the PLO renounces terrorism.

Sept 13 1993: Accord signed on Palestinian autonomy, giving control to Arafat of most of Gaza’s strip and 27 % of West Bank.

1994: Arafat establishes the first Palestinian government in Palestine.Dec 1994 wins Nobel Prize with Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres of Israel.

Jan 20 1996: Arafat elected president of Palestine.

Dec 3 2001: Israeli army confined Arafat to West Bank town of Ramallah.

Jan 18 2002: Israeli army confines Arafat to Ramallah office complex March 29; Israel declares an “enemy” troops seize Ramallah.

Oct 29 2004: Flown to Paris for treatment.

<B>Wafa Amr</B>