RAMALLAH, Nov. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died early on Thursday at a French military hospital outside Paris, Palestinian presidential secretary Tayeb Abdelrahim announced at the Muqataa headquarters.

    Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat also confirmed the death of the Palestinian leader.

    According to French military hospital Percy where Arafat had been under medical treatment, the Palestinian leader died in intensive care at 3:30 a.m. (0230 GMT).

    "Mr. Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestinian Authority, hasdied at Percy military hospital at Clamart on Nov. 11 at 3:30 a.m." said Christian Estripeau, spokesman for the health department ofthe French Defense Ministry.

    Estripeau told reporters Arafat's body would be leaving the hospital and there would be no details at all on the cause of death or anything else.

    Former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, Prime MinisterAhmed Qurei, Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath and Parliament Speaker Rawhi Fattuh visited Arafat in the French military hospital on Monday.

    The body of Arafat will be flown to Cairo, capital of Egypt, for a funeral to be held there on Friday. A senior Palestinian delegation arrived in Cairo Wednesday, making arrangements for thefuneral.

    After the memorial service, Arafat's body would be flown to hisheadquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

    Earlier, Israel has given green light for Arafat's burial in Ramallah.

    Under the law of Palestine, Fattuh will serve as caretaker leader of the Palestinian Authority after Arafat's death.

    The top body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will meet at 8:00 a.m. (0600 GMT) to discuss arrangements for a smooth transition of power following Arafat's death, said a seniorPalestinian official.

    Arafat, 75, had suffered from a variety of digestive tract ailments since he had been confined to his Ramallah headquarters by the Israeli army. He was transferred to the French military hospital on Oct. 29.

    Arafat, symbol of the Palestinian cause for around four decades,was born on Aug. 24, 1929 in Cairo to a textile merchant father, who was a Palestinian with Egyptian ancestry, and his mother from an old Palestinian family in Jerusalem.

    During the war between the Jews and the Arab states in 1948, 19-year-old Arafat broke off his study at Faud University (later Cairo University) to fight against the Jews in the Gaza area.

    In 1958, committed to armed struggles to reverse what Palestinians called the Nabka (Catastrophe), Arafat secretly founded the Fatah movement.

    After the Arab countries' defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War, Fatahemerged from obscurity of an underground movement to a most powerful and best organized group among the PLO. In 1969, Arafat became the PLO chairman.

    In 1994, Arafat shared the Nobel Peace Prize together with Israel's then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for their efforts in the Middle East peace process.

    On May 12, 1994, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was established. In July, Arafat returned to Gaza. In early 1996, Arafat was elected chairman of the PNA. He struggled to define hisrole and keep Israelis and his own countrymen committed to what hetermed "the peace of the brave".

    Since December 2001, Arafat has been besieged by the Israeli army in his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah, known as Muqata. On March 29, 2002, the Israeli cabinet declared Arafat an enemy. In response to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's offer of permanent exile, Arafat said on April 2, 2002 that he would ratherdie than leave the Palestinian territories.

    The veteran Palestinian leader was a veteran survivor, escapingdeath in a plane crash, surviving assassination attempts by Israeli intelligence agencies and recovering from a serious stroke.Enditem