Arafat ‘still alive’, prayers on

‘‘He is still alive. He is not clinically dead. There is no brain death, but his condition is deteriorating. Because there has been no diagnosis, we don’t know what’s wrong with him.’’

A senior Palestinian official said: ‘‘President Arafat is in very serious condition. He is still in a coma. The sense people are getting is that they are increasingly pessimistic.’’

Arafat’s immune system appeared weak as his health, which had at first stabilised after he arrived at the hospital, suddenly deteriorated on Wednesday, aides said.

He was transferred to the intensive care unit on Wednesday at around 5 p.m.

‘‘He has no immunity whatsoever,’’ one aide said, adding he slipped into the coma around 2 a.m. on Thursday.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Col. Christian Estripeau, spokesman for the French military hospital treating Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, said: ‘‘President Yasser Arafat remains in the Percy Military Training Hospital. This statement has been drafted in accordance with the respect for discretion requested by his wife.

In the West Bank, an official said some of the Palestinian President’s powers were handed over to his Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie. The executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation granted Qurie responsibility for urgent matters involving security services and government finances, the official said.

Asked about reports that Arafat had been declared clinically dead, US President George Bush told a news conference: ‘‘My first reaction is God bless his soul.’’ ‘‘And my second reaction is we will continue to work for a free Palestinian state that’s at peace with Israel.’’

Palestinian security services were due to hold an emergency meeting in the evening at Arafat’s shell-battered headquarters in Ramallah, security sources said.

Israel and Palestinian sources said Arafat would probably be buried in the Gaza Strip if his illness proves fatal, because Israel refuses the Palestinian President a grave in Jerusalem. Incidentally, Arafat has not made a will specifying how he should be buried, a high-ranking Muslim religious official said. Meanwhile, two militant Palestinian factions—Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Muslim militant group Hamas—on Thursday called for a ‘‘collective leadership’’ that would include Islamist factions to fill any vacuum left by Yasser Arafat.