Four Palestinian top leaders arrived in Paris Monday evening on board a private plane to visit Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who has been hospitalized in the Percy Military Hospital since Oct. 29.  

The four Palestinian leaders, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, acting Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Mahmoud Abbas and Parliamentary Speaker Rawhi Fattuh, earlier canceled the visit scheduled on Monday after Arafat's wife Suha told the Doha-based Arabic-language Al Jazeera television that they "want to bury Arafat alive" to inherit his power.

Suha is one of only a handful of people who have been authorized to see the 75-year-old Palestinian leader in the last 10 days.

"Abu Ammar (Arafat) is doing well and will return home," but "Abbas, Qurei and Shaath, who are trying to inherit his power, want to bury Arafat alive," she said.

She also made an appeal to the Palestinian people. "A handful of (people) seeking to inherit power are coming to Paris to try and bury Abu Ammar alive. I ask you to look at the extent of the plot," she said.

Late Monday afternoon the spokesman for France's military medical service General Christian Estripeau announced the Palestinian leader remains in intensive care and his condition stable.

Reading a short statement elaborated with authorization of Arafat's wife Suha, the spokesman also said a visit restriction is imposed due to the medical situation of President Yasser Arafat.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2004)