PARIS, Nov 5: Yasser Arafat lay in a coma "between life and death" on Friday as a row brewed between Israelis and Palestinians over a likely burial site. A spokesman for the military hospital treating him said in the evening that Mr Arafat's condition had been stable for the past 24 hours, declaring: "The state of health of President Yasser Arafat has not got worse."

Palestinian envoy to France Leila Shahid denied Yasser Arafat, 75, was brain dead and said he was in a reversible coma. But back home, 14 Palestinian factions met in a show of unity meant to avoid strife in a possible power vacuum.

Mr Arafat has not named a successor and his illness has raised fears of chaos among Palestinians waging a four-year-old uprising against Israel. Some of Mr Arafat's powers, over security and financing, have already been handed to Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, a leading moderate.

Palestinian officials refused to discuss funeral preparations openly, but Mr Arafat has said he wanted to be buried in Jerusalem. Israel wants Arafat, admired by Palestinians but reviled by many Israelis, to be buried in the Gaza Strip.

"Jerusalem is a city where Jews bury their kings. It's not a city where we want to bury an Arab terrorist, a mass murderer," Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid told Channel 10 television. Mr Arafat, who has spent the past week in France being treated for an unspecified illness, slipped into a coma on Thursday.

UNITED FRONT: The 14 Palestinian groups that have waged the uprising against Israel put up a united front at a meeting in the Gaza Strip. "We are people looking for freedom, not fighting tribes," said senior Islamic Jihad official Mohammed al Hindi, who emerged from hiding for the meeting. "We have demanded the formation of a unified national leadership." -Reuters