President Yasser Arafat was in critical condition at a military hospital outside the French capital Thursday, said Palestinian officials and French medical authorities. Although medical sources said the 75-year-old Palestinian leader had slipped into a deep coma, they denied media reports that Arafat had died. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, senior Arafat adviser, said "He is in critical and grave condition," but denied the leader was in a coma. Although it conflicted with versions supplied both by a French and Palestinian source, Rudeineh's statement nonetheless was the first official confirmation that Arafat's health had deteriorated badly in the past 24 hours. Arafat's chief foreign adviser, Nabil Shaath, said Arafat was in better shape than generally believed, and had managed to respond to President Jacques Chirac when the French leader visited Arafat at bedside on Thursday. "He did not talk to President Chirac, but he opened his eyes and lifted up his hand to him", Shaath said in a telephone interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. However a doctor at the hospital said Arafat's condition was "extremely grave" and the 75-year-old Palestinian leader probably would not recover from his illness. --More 2358 Local Time 2058 GMT
