Arafat's wife says leaders aim to 'bury him alive'

PARIS -- Yasser Arafat's wife accused Palestinian leaders hoping to travel to France today to visit her critically ill husband of plotting to ''bury him alive."

Israeli media had reported the 75-year-old president would be taken off life-support equipment after Mahmoud Abbas, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, and Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath arrived in Paris.

''I appeal to you to be aware of the scope of the conspiracy," a screaming Suha Arafat said on Al-Jazeera satellite television, monitored in the West Bank.

''They are trying to bury Abu Ammar [Arafat] alive," she said in comments that flew in the face of efforts by Arafat's lieutenants to project an image of unity and business as usual at a time when many Palestinians fear chaos if he dies.

''Abu Ammar is well and he is coming back to his homeland," she said without giving any details about Arafat's illness and accusing the three leaders of being desperate to succeed him.

Palestinian officials have privately accused Suha Arafat, who prior to her husband being flown to a Paris military hospital on Oct. 29 had not seen him in three years, of limiting access to and information about the veteran leader.

Arafat was suffering from liver failure and his health was not improving, one official said.

An Israeli newspaper's website said the ''working assumption" among Israeli security officials preparing for Arafat's death was that any life support equipment would be shut down tomorrow.

''Suha does not want the Palestinian leaders to come to visit Arafat," one Palestinian official said before her Al-Jazeera interview was broadcast. ''Talks are going on and it's not clear when the leaders will come to Paris."

Arafat's close circle has been concerned that fears about his health may increase chaos at home. Others fear a power struggle among Palestinians locked in a 4-year-old uprising against Israel. Suha Arafat has lived abroad for much of the uprising.

Foreign Minister Michel Barnier of France described Arafat's condition as ''very complex, very serious, and stable at the time we are speaking."

Abbas and Qurei, overseeing the Palestinian Authority in Arafat's absence, wanted to go to Paris today to learn about his condition, a Palestinian official said.

Looking ahead to life without Arafat, his subordinates in the West Bank decided to carry out a plan to restore law and order to the Palestinian territories.

It was the first major decision they had announced since Arafat left.

Officials in Ramallah said the plan, drafted in March, was concerned more with ending local lawlessness than reining in militants -- a longstanding Israeli and international demand.

Calling for more security forces to be deployed, the plan also bans militants from carrying arms except when confronting Israel and from intervening in local disturbances.

Israel has said Palestinian failure to curb anti-Israeli violence was one of the main reasons for its decision to carry out a unilateral withdrawal of settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. The evacuation, scheduled for 2005, is seen by Palestinians as a ruse aimed at cementing Israel's hold on larger settlement blocs in the West Bank.

Addressing the delicate issue of where Arafat should be buried if he dies, Israel said it had completed preparations for his eventual burial in the Gaza Strip.

Arafat wants to be buried in Jerusalem's Old City, which is holy both to Muslims and Jews. But Israel refuses to let Arafat lie in annexed land it calls part of its indivisible capital.

Also yesterday, Israeli undercover forces shot and killed four Palestinians in the West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinians said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Palestinians said Israeli troops disguised as Arabs opened fire on a Palestinian vehicle, killing the four. Two were members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent offshoot of Arafat's Fatah movement.