A high-ranking Palestinian delegation will go to Paris on Monday to visit ailing Yasser Arafat, well-informed Palestinian sources said on Sunday.  

The sources, which spoke on conditions of anonymity, said that the delegation would include former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, or Abu Mazen, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath.

The sources said that the delegation would visit Arafat at Percy Military Hospital in Paris who has been treated there since Oct. 29 after suffering from a severe illness that was hard to diagnose.

Shaath told reporters that the travel of the delegation has been confirmed; adding that he personally would head to Paris together with Qurei or with Abu Mazen. However, he didn't talk about a specific date.

"The reason for the visit in the hospital is to make sure that President Arafat's health is fine and to look at the conflicting reports and check which one is true," said Shaath.

Since Arafat has been transferred to the hospital in France, Qurei has been chairing the Palestinian cabinet and the council for national security, while Abu Mazen chairs the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Fatah Movement Central Committee.

The two are working to form a unified leadership and prevent chaos in the Palestinian self-rule areas in case of the demise of Arafat.

The visit of the delegation to Paris is an indication that Arafat's health is worrying the Palestinian officials, and they want to make sure that the medical reports on his health are true.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, an aide to Arafat had earlier said that the Palestinians are waiting within the coming 48 hours to know the exact report on Arafat's health conditions.

Earlier in the day, Qurei said that Arafat's health condition "was stable and did not see any change" over the past few hours.

The Qatari al Jazeera Satellite Channel had earlier reported that Arafat's medical conditions are critical, adding that "his (Arafat) health conditions can have all possibilities."

(Xinhua News Agency November 8, 2004)