JERUSALEM, Oct 25: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat received Israeli permission on Monday to leave his Ramallah headquarters and receive medical treatment in a hospital in the West Bank city, an Israeli security source said.

"He has permission to go into Ramallah. He has pains," the security source said. "He will be allowed back into his compound afterwards."

Mr Arafat, who doctors said is recuperating from flu, Has been effectively confined by Israel to his battered Ramallah headquarters, known as the Muqata, for nearly three years.

Palestinian officials had no immediate comment, and it was unclear if and when Mr Arafat, 75, would go into hospital.

The security source said Yasser Arafat's aides had made the request, which was approved by Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz.

Israel has said Arafat could leave the West Bank at will but it would not guarantee the return of the veteran Palestinian leader.

Ahmed Tibi, a member of Israel's parliament and a former adviser to mr Arafat, said on Sunday that Tunisian doctors who examined him on Saturday made the same diagnosis as Egyptian physicians who saw him earlier in the week.

"The results of the Egyptian and Tunisian checkup are the same: an acute viral infection," Tibi, who is also a doctor, said on Israeli Army Radio.

"He is recuperating from an acute case of the flu," said Tibi, who told the radio he visited Arafat on Friday.

Israel's Channel Two television said on Saturday that both teams of doctors concluded that Arafat was suffering from gall stones and had an intestinal infection. -Reuters