CAIRO, 12 November 2004 — Egypt, where Yasser Arafat began his political life and where biographers say he was born, yesterday prepared a funeral for the Palestinian president, who was declared dead in Paris in the early morning.

The body of Arafat, symbol of Palestinian aspirations since the 1960s, will arrive by French military plane around 11 p.m. (2000 GMT) and spend the night at nearby Gala military hospital in readiness for the funeral today, security sources said.

Arab and Muslim heads of state and government, as well as foreign ministers from Europe and other continents, will take part in the military funeral procession, which is expected to start at a mosque near Cairo airport, official sources said.

The body will leave the hospital at 8 a.m. and Egyptian officials said mourners would probably say prayers for the Palestinian leader at the nearby King Faisal Mosque.

Arafat, who had been in a military hospital in France for two weeks, would then be moved to the airport and laid in front of the presidential terminal to receive delegations, they added.

A Foreign Ministry official said Arafat’s body would later be flown by helicopter to the West Bank town of Ramallah, where he is due to be buried tomorrow.

Palestinian leaders have begun arriving in Cairo to make arrangements. Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency said security forces were preparing the area around the airport, thought to have been chosen for the ceremonies to avoid the hectic streets at the center of the sprawling capital.

Officials said Cairo had been chosen so that Arab leaders and dignitaries unable to travel to the West Bank, which is mostly under Israeli occupation, could attend.

“My understanding is that Egypt is a venue for the funeral for all those Arab, Palestinian, and other world leaders and officials who cannot for any reason be present in Ramallah,” said an official at the Arab League, which has its headquarters in Cairo.

World Leaders to Attend

World leaders expected to attend the Cairo ceremonies include South African President Thabo Mbeki, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu.

The prime ministers of Pakistan and Sweden are expected to attend, as well as foreign ministers from France, Germany, Britain, Bulgaria, Iran, Denmark and Turkey.

The United States, which has refused to deal with Arafat for the past two and a half years, is expected to send Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, reflecting Washington’s view that Arafat was a “failed leader” who clung to power too long.

Arafat, who formed the Fatah movement in 1958 and took over the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1969, is due to be buried tomorrow in the Ramallah compound where Israeli forces had confined him for over 2-1/2 years.

The compound, known as the “Muqata” is itself now a symbol of the struggle for the state that Arafat never lived to see.

Egypt has been a key mediator in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict after signing its own peace treaty with Israel in 1979, the first Arab state to do so. The treaty was condemned by many Palestinians and much of the Arab world at the time.

Biographies say Arafat was born in Cairo in 1929, although Arafat himself said he was born in Jerusalem. Arafat studied engineering at Cairo University, and began his political life there by taking over the Palestinian Students’ League in 1952.

He was also a regular visitor to Egypt throughout his life as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization.