RAMALLAH, West Bank, 10 October 2003 — Yasser Arafat was in “good health” yesterday after being examined by a team of Egyptian medics, an aide to the aging Palestinian leader said. “An Egyptian medical team examined President Arafat last (Wednesday) night,” the source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The 74-year-old “is at present in good health and has recovered from his recent stomach illness.” Aides to Arafat were forced to deny a report Wednesday in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper that he had suffered a mild heart attack last week but that the news had been hushed up to avoid any panic in Palestinian ranks.

Instead officials have insisted that Arafat had merely suffered a bout of intestinal flu. Arafat was due to make a speech yesterday before MPs at his Muqataa headquarters here during a session of Parliament in which new Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei was due to unveil his program of government.

A senior aide said an Egyptian medical team headed by President Hosni Mubarak’s private physician had examined Arafat at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

“They took blood samples and carried out several tests,” he said. “Their initial findings were that he had a very strong flu and stomach virus, but the final results will be given to us tonight.”

As a result of the illness, Arafat did not eat solid foods for 10 days and could not even keep soup down, aides said. Arafat had lost a lot of weight but his appearance had improved over the past three days and he has been more alert, the aides said.

Arafat, who sometimes shakes in public, emerged from his headquarters on Sept. 29 looking well and cheerful to dispel rumors he was in poor health.

Palestinian doctors said then he was suffering from a mild bout of influenza but that a medical team summoned from Jordan gave him a clean bill of health.

A senior Israeli military source said Arafat’s ailment did not appear to be life-threatening. “We don’t think his life is at risk. From what we know, he had some problems with his stomach. He is weak a little bit, he is operating. He is taking part in meetings. It was not a heart attack,” the source said.

Arafat himself was quoted as saying by the Al-Quds newspaper yesterday that he was in “good health” and that he had recovered from his “stomach illness”.

“People around him are afraid of complications because of his age but especially because of the unhealthy situation he is living in, in his office,” another senior aide said. “Others are looking into the possibility that he might have been poisoned, so the...medical team has taken blood samples.”

According to the official WAFA news agency, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and Tunisian President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali had called Arafat on Wednesday evening to inquire about his health.

Arafat has been weakened by a bad case of flu but his condition is not life-threatening, aides said yesterday after his pale appearance set the rumor mill spinning. “He is not dying,” a Palestinian official close to Arafat, 74, told Reuters.

Arafat, a veteran symbol of Palestinian aspirations for independence, appeared to many observers to be frail during the swearing in ceremony on Tuesday of his new Cabinet.