Ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s condition worsened overnight, hospital officials said and the coma he has been in for almost a week has deepened.

Senior Palestinian leaders including Ahmed Qureia and Mahmoud Abbas arrived in France tonight in a bid to check on the medical status of Yasser Arafat.

Yasser Arafat is hovering “between life and death” in a coma, Palestinian and French officials say.

Clinging on to life in a French hospital, Yasser Arafat was unaware tonight of the growing row over where he will be buried.

THE Israeli army went on high alert and fears of unrest grew in Gaza and the West Bank last night as Yasser Arafat’s slipped into an “irreversible coma”.

AS Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was fighting for his life in a French hospital last night after slipping into a coma, a senior official said some of his powers had been handed to his prime minister.

Yasser Arafat is alive, the head doctor at a French military hospital said today, refuting reports saying the Palestinian leader had died.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, suffering from a serious but mystery illness, arrived in France today for urgent treatment – ending nearly three years of Israeli-imposed confinement at his battered West Bank compound.