Two senior aides to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat arrived in Cairo Wednesday evening for talks with Egyptian officials on Arafat's funeral in the event of his death, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.
Nabil Abu Rudeina, Arafat's senior aide, was quoted as saying that Arafat's health conditions were "very bad" and many of his organs, except heart and lungs, have failed.
He said that the Palestinian leadership has decided to send him and Mohammed Rashid to Cairo to make funeral arrangements with Egyptian officials.
Arafat, 75, is now seriously ill at a French military hospital and many fear that his final phase of life has come.
Egyptian presidential spokesman Maged Abdul Fattah said on Wednesday that Egypt will host a funeral service for the Palestinian leader in case he dies.
The spokesman said that the decision was made late Tuesday after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak consulted with senior Palestinian officials and his Yemeni counterpart Ali Abdallah Saleh over telephone.