Palestinian leaders made preparations for Arafat's eventual death. They said they would bury Arafat at his sandbagged headquarters in the West Bank and turn the site into a shrine.

But the 75-year-old leader, whose condition has steadily worsened since he was flown to a military hospital outside Paris on Oct. 29, would not be removed from life support, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said.

''His brain, his heart and his lungs are still functioning and he is alive,'' Shaath said after he and other Palestinian officials met with Arafat's doctors, his wife and French President Jacques Chirac.

''He will live or die depending on his body's ability to resist and on the will of God,'' Shaath said.

Shaath's remarks at a news conference underlined that the Palestinian leadership was now in control of information about Arafat after days of confusing and often conflicting reports about his undisclosed illness. Palestinian officials had been denied access by Arafat's wife, Suha, who used France's strict privacy laws that give authority to the family.

Shaath also tried to dispel concerns about the possibility of chaos in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the event of Arafat's death and said the leadership transition would be smooth.

''What I would say is that on the political level, our government is functioning,'' he said.

On a visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the Bush administration was ready to engage with the emerging Palestinian leadership to make progress toward establishing a Palestinian state at peace with Israel.

Shaath was part of a senior Palestinian delegation led by Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and Mahmoud Abbas, the No. 2 man behind Arafat in the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The group left for Jordan late Tuesday after a 24-hour visit to the French capital.

A top Islamic cleric, Taissir Dayut Tamimi, was rushing to Arafat's bedside. Shaath called Tamimi, who was expected in Paris on Wednesday, ''a very close friend'' of Arafat and said that ''we think having a religious person beside him in these difficult moments is relevant.''

The Palestinian deputy Parliament speaker, Hassan Khreishe, said that leaders decided Arafat should be buried at his West Bank headquarters, known as the Muqata.

Arafat was cooped up in his battered offices by Israel's army for nearly three years, and the site has become a symbol to Palestinians of their resistance to Israeli occupation.