RAMALLAH, Nov. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- The Palestinian delegation returned here early Wednesday after their visit to Paris to assess the state of health of ailing leader Yasser Arafat, Xinhua correspondents reported on the scene.

    The delegation was led by former prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, current Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei, Palestinian National Council (parliament) speaker Rawhi Fattuh and Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath.

    Following their returning, the central committee of Fatah and the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will convene in the morning at the Arafat headquarters Muqataa, it was reported.

    During their stay in Paris, where the delegation arrived late Monday, they saw Arafat on his sick-bed in the Percy military hospital in the suburb of Clamart where the ailing Palestinian leader has been looked after for 13 days.

    The delegation also met with French President Jacques Chirac andForeign Minister Michel Barnier.

    Shaath told a press conference after visit to Arafat that the Palestinian leader is still alive and his brain, heart and lungs still function, but he is "very ill" and the condition has deteriorated.

    "Having recognized the critical situation that President Arafat is in today, his brain, his heart and his lungs still function and he is alive," he told reporters.

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

    Arafat, 75, was transferred to the French military hospital on the outskirts of Paris on Oct. 29.

    Shaath denounced that Arafat had been suffering from a variety of digestive tract ailments since he had been confined to his Ramallah headquarters by the Israeli army. So he had "serious inflammations" of stomach and the intestines and his health is deteriorating. Enditem