Palestinian representative in Paris Leila Shahid denied Saturday that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat undergoing medical tests in Paris had leukemia, saying he is in "good spirits." 

"For the moment, the doctors have excluded any trace of leukemia," the Palestinian Authority's representative in Paris, Leila Shahid, told journalists outside the hospital late Saturday, French LCI television reported.

"If things continue like that, it's reassuring," she said, adding that Arafat was "in good spirits" with his wife Suha by his bedside.

Arafat's senior advisor, Nabil Abu Rudeina, also denied the news claiming that Arafat had leukemia and lost mental faculties.

"We deny what CNN reported about President Arafat," he told journalists, adding that tests were continuing and full results would not be known before Monday.

Palestinian officials in West Bank city of Ramallah strongly denied the leukemia report. Jibril Rajub, Palestinian national security adviser, said the report was false and full of allegations and lies.

French Defense Ministry said earlier in a statement with the approval of Arafat's family that French doctors treating Arafat had banned any visitors from seeing him for the next few days.

Arafat, widely seen as a living symbol of the Palestinian struggle for statehood, was initially diagnosed with severe influenza, but one of his doctors declared Thursday that he was suffering from a potentially fatal blood disorder.

The 75-year-old Palestinian leader was admitted Friday to the French Percy military hospital in Clamart, southwest of Paris. French Defense Ministry had said that it is the most adapted hospital to treat his blood pathology.

It is the first time in three years that Arafat has left his West Bank compound, a sign of the gravity of his condition. He has been confined to his Ramallah headquarters by Israel since December 2001.

(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2004)