The French government insisted today that Yasser Arafat was not poisoned and Le Mondenewspaper quoted doctors as saying he suffered from an unusual blood disease and a liver problem.
French government spokesman Mr Jean-Francois Cope
Uncertainty surrounds the cause of the Palestinian president's death in a Paris military hospital last week because French law prevents doctors releasing details about his condition without permission from the next of kin.
The government stood by its refusal to provide any details, despite speculation among Palestinians that Mr Arafat was poisoned by Israel and a request for more information by Palestinian leaders. Israeli officials deny poisoning him.
"If the doctors had had the slightest doubt, they would have referred it to the police. I note that permission was given for him to be buried," government spokesman Mr Jean-Francois Cope said after the weekly French cabinet meeting.
"Yasser Arafat received the best care possible and all the tests that should have been done were done."
Reiterating France's refusal to release Mr Arafat's medical file to anyone except the late leader's family,
A Palestinian man cries in front of a grave of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah today.
Mr Cope said: "The public authorities can in no case violate this law which touches on fundamental freedoms."
Mr Arafat, 75, died last week after being flown in from his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah on October 29 suffering from stomach pains, diarrhoea and vomiting.
Aides quoted doctors as saying he had weight loss and a low count of platelets, which help the blood clot. They later said he had gone into a coma, suffered a brain haemorrhage and lost the use of his vital organs one by one.
Mr Ashraf al-Kurdi, a Jordanian doctor who treated Arafat for a quarter of a century, reiterated calls for an autopsy in an interview with Spain's El Paisnewspaper and said he still suspected the president could have been poisoned.
"I envisage the possibility of poisoning because the rest of the illnesses that could cause the symptoms that Arafat suffered from in the last days were ruled out one by one," Mr Kurdi said.