However, Arafat's top adviser, Nabil Abu Rdeneh,
said doctors examining the 75-year-old Palestinian leader Thursday were still
deciding whether he needs to be hospitalized. Arafat has been confined by Israel
to his compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah since 2002.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in a telephone conversation with his
Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qureia, agreed to allow Arafat to be flown abroad
for treatment if necessary. However, Israeli security officials said the
Palestinians have only requested, for now, to take Arafat to a local hospital.
On Wednesday evening, Arafat's persistent two-week illness took a sudden turn
for the worse. He vomited after eating soup, then collapsed and was unconscious
for about 10 minutes, a bodyguard said.
Aides urgently summoned doctors from Jordan and Egypt, and Arafat's wife,
Suha, was en route to the West Bank from Tunis. Suha Arafat lives in Paris, and
has not seen her husband since 2001.
Arafat performed pre-dawn prayers and later had cornflakes for breakfast,
said Monib al-Masri, a longtime friend who visited him Thursday. "He prayed and
he is fully awake," al-Masri told The Associated Press.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said doctors arriving from abroad,
including teams from Jordan and Egypt, would decide whether Arafat needs to be
moved from his headquarters to a hospital. The Jordanian team, including
Arafat's personal physician, Dr. Ashraf Kurdi, crossed into the West Bank before
noon.
Before leaving Amman, Kurdi told The Associated Press he didn't have an
official report on Arafat's health but that the Palestinians had asked him to
come "because he might be suffering from a serious disease."
Arafat has been confined to the sandbagged, partially demolished compound for
more than two years. He has been kept inside both by occasional Israeli military
blockades and by threats that he would not be allowed to return if he leaves.
Israeli security officials said Thursday that Israel is ready to guarantee
Arafat's return should he seek treatment abroad. Israel is doing everything it
can to avoid being blamed for Arafat's health problems, officials said.
However, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was skeptical. "If Arafat wants to
come to Egypt, it would be difficult to get Israeli guarantees to let him go
back," Mubarak told reporters in Cairo.
Late Wednesday, Sharon spoke by phone with Qureia and agreed in principle to
allow Arafat to be flown abroad, if necessary. The two men did not discuss
whether Israel would ensure Arafat would be able to return, said Sharon aide
Asaf Shariv.
Palestinian officials gave conflicting accounts of Arafat's condition. Some
said he was in serious condition, while others had more upbeat assessments. "We
are preparing ourselves for everything possible," Palestinian Communications
Minister Azzam Ahmed told the Al-Jazeera satellite television station.
Arafat's health crisis has highlighted how unprepared the Palestinians are
for their leader's death, making a chaotic transition period all but inevitable.
Arafat has refused to groom a successor, fearing an impatient protege could turn
on him.
Two Palestinian leadership groups, the Central Committee of the ruling Fatah
movement and the PLO Executive Committee, planned to meet at Arafat's
headquarters later Thursday.
One Palestinian official said Arafat has created a special committee
consisting of Qureia, former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and Salim Zaanoun,
head of the Palestinian National Council, to run the PLO and the Palestinian
Authority while he is ill.
But when asked if Arafat had set up such a committee, Arafat spokesman Nabil
Abu Rdeneh said: "Nothing like that."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said U.S. officials were monitoring the
situation.
In Israel, defense officials met Thursday to discuss the fallout if Arafat
dies. Israel has prepared contingency plans, including how to deal with possible
riots and prevent Palestinian attempts to bury Arafat in Jerusalem.
Israel has marked a possible burial site for Arafat in the Jerusalem suburb
of Abu Dis, in the West Bank, security officials said. The Haaretz daily said
Israel has taken the location of the plot into consideration in planning the
route of its West Bank separation barrier.
Sharon met Thursday with his defense minister, Shaul Mofaz.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said a Palestinian Authority without
Arafat could become a partner for peace. "We always said we would be willing to
talk to a Palestinian leadership that would be willing once and for all to bring
an end to the bloodshed," Shalom told Israel Radio.
Arafat has been ill for two weeks, but reports about his ailment have varied
widely — from the flu to speculation by Israeli officials that he has stomach
cancer. Two of his doctors said Wednesday a blood test and a biopsy of tissue
from his digestive tract showed no evidence of stomach cancer.
On Tuesday, a hospital official said he was suffering from a large gallstone.
The gallstone, while extremely painful, is not life-threatening and can be
easily treated, the official said.
Some Israeli officials speculated Arafat had suffered a stroke. Arafat also
has shown symptoms of Parkinson's disease since the late 1990s.
Israel, which accuses Arafat of stoking violent attacks against it, had
previously said he was free to leave his Ramallah compound and even to travel
abroad, but it would not guarantee he would be allowed to return.
Doctors have equipped two rooms of the compound with medical equipment,
including X-ray and ultrasound machines and emergency resuscitation gear.
