http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?id=2004110909240002228642&dt=20041109092400&w=RTR&coview=PARIS (Reuters) - Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is dead, senior Palestinian political sources said on Tuesday.
The information from sources close to Arafat could not immediately be confirmed.
"He is dead," a senior political source close to Arafat told Reuters in Paris, where the 75-year-old leader has been lying in a coma at a French military hospital.
Asked to confirm Arafat\'s death, another official close to the president said: "Yes, he is dead. There will be an announcement soon."
None of the sources gave any details of the cause of death.
Officials in the West Bank said they had not been informed that Arafat was dead.
He had been at the hospital having treatment since Oct. 29.
Palestinian officials had said Arafat was suffering from liver failure and the lower part of his body was not functioning. He had been in a coma and his condition worsened overnight, a hospital spokesman said earlier on Tuesday.