JERUSALEM, Sept 8: Mystery over the cause of Yasser Arafat’s death took a new twist on Thursday with the emergence of medical reports which failed to pinpoint a precise cause for the Palestinian leader’s demise.

While the Israeli authors of a new book charge the reports show the 75-year-old succumbed to poisoning, AIDS or an infection, a separate interpretation of Yasser Arafat’s hitherto secret medical files by the New York Times dismissed such rumours as unfounded.

Both the Times and Israel’s Haaretz newspaper listed the immediate cause of death as a haemorrhage, but concluded that the underlying cause of infection was unclear from the report into Mr Arafat’s last days in a French hospital.

“A discussion among a large number of medical experts... shows that it is impossible to pinpoint a cause that will explain the combination of symptoms that led to the death of the patient,” Haaretz cited the report as saying.

But the co-author of a new Israeli book was more clear-cut.

“There are three possible causes of death: infection from a germ that poisoned the blood, AIDS or poisoning,” Avi Isacharov said.

Mr Isacharov, quoting Israeli medical experts, said AIDS cannot be ruled out as a cause of death, even though the disease is not mentioned in the medical records, which the journalist branded ‘fudged’ and ‘confusing’.

“I interviewed medical experts, including Professor Johnny Gershoni, AIDS specialist at Tel Aviv University, and Professor Gil Lugassi who were categorical that the symptoms described in the report were typical of AIDS,” he said.

Although he admits another AIDS expert concluded the opposite, he finds it ‘absurd’ and ‘deeply suspicious’ that the disease was omitted.

“With such symptoms, it is clear that the word AIDS should have been mentioned at least once,” said the radio reporter, whose new edition of ‘The Seventh War’, co-written with Haaretz journalist Amos Harel, comes out next week.

He also said that crucial biopsies sent to Tunis for analysis that could have clearly determined what Mr Arafat was suffering from, vanished.

The family also refused a request from French doctors, four days before Yasser Arafat died, for a liver biopsy, which Mr Isacharov again charges was intended to draw a veil over the cause of death.

Israeli and US experts consulted by the Times pointed out that the records showed Mr Arafat did not receive antibiotics until 15 days after he fell ill and only two days before he went to hospital, probably too late to save him.

Those experts concluded that poisoning was highly unlikely and said rumours of AIDS were unfounded, although they recognized the omission of any mention of a test for the disease, was ‘bizarre’.

In a front-page article carried by Haaretz, alongside a photocopy of the medical report, the Israeli newspaper extrapolated from its own expert medical interpretation that Mr Arafat died of an infection, poisoning or AIDS.

Amid the swirl of controversy,

Mr Shalom urged the Palestinians to put an end to such theories, following talks with the visiting French foreign minister.—AFP