Arafat bid farewell to his people in Palestine. 75-year-old Palestinian leader Arafat left Amman's military airport aboard a French plane at around 8:00 am (0600 GMT) Friday on his way to Paris for medical treatment. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

Ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat arrived at a French military hospital in the southwestern Paris suburb of Clamart Friday for urgent medical treatment.

Arafat, who has been sick for the past two weeks and blood tests have revealed he has a low platelet count, is expected to have urgent checks at Percy military hospital immediately.

Some 100 journalists are awaiting outside the hospital, along with several Arafat's supporters holding flags and some bunches of flowers.

Some 80 policemen are mobilized to keep orders in the streets around the hospital.

Accompanied by his wife Suha and a team of medics and advisors, Arafat left his West Bank headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah early on Friday on a Jordanian military helicopter to Amman, from where he flew to Paris.

The plane, a small Falcon chartered by France, which carried Arafat, took off from a military airport east of Amman on Friday at around 6:20 GMT.

According to the French Defense Ministry earlier in the day, the plane had to skirt Israel's airspace, short of permanent agreement between France and Israel for French planes' flying over, it would have saved half an hour.

Arafat's senior advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina said in Ramallah that the veteran leader was now in a stable condition, but doctors had advised him to receive follow-up checks abroad.

Yasser Abed Rabu, a member of the PLO executive committee, said the PLO had received international guarantees that Arafat will be able to return to the Palestinian territories after treatment in France.

"These guarantees encouraged us to take our decision that Chairman Arafat will travel early Friday to France," he said after a meeting of the PLO and the Fatah movement.

Abed Rabu said that after the medical treatment, the Palestinian leader will return to his headquarters in the West bank city of Ramallah.

Israel has guaranteed that it will not bar Arafat from returning to the West Bank if he needs to go abroad for medical treatment.

There would be no acting leader during Arafat's absence since the prime minister, the Palestinian Legislative Council and the PLO were all there to address the daily work, said Palestinian officials.