French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said today France would release Yasser Arafat's medical dossier only to his family, despite a request for details by Palestinian leaders.
The Palestinian leaders said they wanted full information on the Palestinian president's death in a Paris hospital last week, and they challenged French laws under which his widow has maintained a veil of secrecy.
"Yasser Arafat's medical dossier will be handed over, in accordance with the law and the rules, to those who have a right to know and who ask for it, and I mean family members," Mr Barnier told France's Europe 1 radio.
"The family of Yasser Arafat has the right do what it likes (with the dossier)," he added.
French doctors are bound by privacy laws invoked by Mr Arafat's widow, Suha, which prevent them releasing details.
Aides said Mr Arafat (75), died on November 11th after going into a coma and suffering a brain haemorrhage. But they did not say what illness caused this to happen.
Rumours have been rife that Mr Arafat has been suffering from anything from cancer of the stomach to a rare blood disorder.
Palestinian militants have accused Israel of poisoning Mr Arafat, a charge denied by Israeli and French officials but which threatens to fuel discontent in the West Bank and Gaza and complicate the succession process.