A French hospital treating Mr Yasser Arafat said today that the Palestinian leader's condition was improving with treatment and ruled out leukaemia.
"A clinical exam and initial tests performed ... confirmed the abnormal blood count, high white blood cell count and low platelet count and ruled out a diagnosis of leukaemia," Palestinian envoy to Paris Ms Leila Shahid said in the first joint statement with a French military hospital treating Mr Arafat.
Mr Arafat was rushed to France from his shell-battered compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah last Friday with severe stomach pains, diarrhoea and vomiting and what doctors said at the time could be leukaemia.
Yesterday Palestinians officials said they expected the 75-year-old leader to remain in the hospital in a suburb southwest of Paris for at least another three weeks.