"President Arafat lost consciousness three times during Wednesday and overnight Wednesday to Thursday. The first two times he recovered consciousness but the third time we do not know at this moment," the source was quoted as saying.

Arafat, symbol of the Palestinian cause for four decades, flied Friday to Paris for treatment from his headquarters in Ramallah in the West Bank, where he had been confined by Israel for nearly three years.

He is currently hospitalized for medical tests in the Percy military hospital at Clamart, southwest of Paris, after one of his doctor declared last Thursday that he was suffering from a potentially fatal blood disorder.