Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath (R) speaks during a press conference in Paris, Tuesday Nov. 9, 2004. Arafat was very ill but his brain, heart and lungs were still functioning, Shaath said. (Xinhua photo)

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is still alive and his brain, heart and lungs still function, but he is "very ill" and the condition has deteriorated, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath told a press conference.

"Having recognized the critical situation that President Arafatis in today, his brain, his heart and his lungs still function and he is alive," he told reporters.

The official denies rumors of euthanasia for Arafat. "I want to rule out any question of euthanasia... People talk as if his life can be plugged in or plugged out. This is ridiculous. We Muslims do not allow euthanasia," he told reporters.

"He will live or die depending on his body's ability to resist and on the will of God," he added.

Arafat's doctors also ruled out poisoning and cancer, he said.

Arafat, 75, had been suffering from a variety of digestive tract ailments since he had been confined to his Ramallah headquarters by the Israeli army. So he had "serious inflammations" of stomach and the intestines and his health is deteriorating, the foreign minister said.

Shaath also said that the speaker of the parliament, or the Palestinian National Council, will become "interim president," if Arafat dies.

Arafat was transferred to a French military hospital on the outskirts of Paris on Oct. 29.

Earlier, visiting former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas said the condition of Arafat is "very serious," after seeing him in a military hospital outside Paris.

"His situation is serious. Sadly it is very serious," said Abbas, who is number two in the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

"We saw all the doctors," he said.

Abbas, Shaath, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and Parliament Speaker Rawhi Fattuh arrived late Monday in Paris and were taken to Arafat's bedside on Tuesday afternoon in order to confirm in person their senior leader's health condition.

They held talks on Tuesday afternoon with French President Jacques Chirac in the French presidential Elysee palace, in company of Nasser al-Qidwa, permanent representative of the Palestinian Authority to the United Nations and Yasser Arafat's nephew, and Palestinian representative in Paris, Leila Shahid.

The delegation thanked Chirac for the care that France gives generously to Arafat and for France's stand for the Palestinian cause, Abbas said.

Chirac made decision in person to receive in France the 75-year-old Palestinian leader who has been hospitalized in Percy militaryhospital near Paris since Oct. 29 to diagnose his blood disorder.