CLAMART, Nov 2: French doctors said on Tuesday Yasser Arafat was responding to treatment and ruled out leukaemia, though aides said the Palestinian leader could remain in a French military hospital for several more weeks.

Mr Arafat was well enough to follow the U.S. presidential elections and had taken calls from heads of state and senior Palestinian officials, said aides in the southwestern Paris suburb where the 75-year-old leader is being treated.

Initial tests "confirmed the abnormal blood count, high white blood cell count and low platelet count and ruled out a diagnosis of leukaemia", Palestinian envoy to Paris Leila Shahid said in the first joint statement with the Percy military hospital treating Yasser Arafat.

The statement, drawn up with doctors treating Mr Arafat, said there had been a "general improvement" in his condition over the past 72 hours.

Mr Arafat was rushed to France on Friday from his shell-battered compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah with severe stomach pains, diarrhoea and vomiting and what doctors said at the time could be leukaemia.

"There is a slow but positive development. We have overcome the critical stage in Arafat's health. Now it is a matter of time for him to get treatment and recover," Mohammed Dahlan, a former Palestinian interior minister, said in Paris.

"As long as Arafat remains in a healthy place and is receiving proper medical care he will improve tremendously. If he returns to the Muqata (compound) in Ramallah he will have a setback," said Dahlan, part of a Palestinian delegation that accompanied Arafat to France.

Palestinian officials say tests had revealed no tumours or serious illness but said privately they expected Mr Arafat to remain in hospital for at least another three weeks.

"By Saturday the doctors will most probably have the final diagnosis. Then he will need some time for treatment. It could take three to four weeks."-Reuters