Palestinian President Yasser Arafat remains in a stable condition, according to the spokesman of the Paris hospital where he is admitted.

"The state of health of President Yasser Arafat has not got worse," the spokesman said.

Arafat finished politically, says aide

Arafat has not named a successor but some of his powers have been handed over to Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei.

Arafat, who has been in France for the last week receiving treatment for an unspecified illness, slipped into a coma on Thursday.

A row has already started between Israeli and Palestinian authorities over where the 75-year-old leader would be buried when he dies

According to a report in salon.com, the top Muslim cleric in Jerusalem said Arafat wished to be buried near a holy site there.

The Mufti of Jerusalem, Ikrema Sabri, said that during a meeting four months ago, Arafat asked to be buried near the city's Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest shrine.

But Jews revere the site, built on the ruins of the biblical Jewish temples, as the Temple Mount and Israel authorities have already refused the request.

Israel's Justice Minister, Yosef Lapid, was quoted as saying that the city is "where Jewish kings are buried and not Arab terrorists'.