The medical condition of the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, has deteriorated even further with sources saying that he has suffered liver and kidney failure.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said the Palestinian president was now "at a very critical stage."
Mr Arafat (75) suffered a brain haemorrhage yesterday at the hospital where he was flown from the West Bank on October 29th and had lain in a coma. Officials maintained in public that he was alive, though aides said privately that he was dead.
As Mr Arafat's condition continue to deteriorate, aides made plans to fly his body to Cairo for a funeral, then to the West Bank for burial at his Ramallah headquarters.
Palestinians have selected his immediate successor, saying the parliament speaker Mr Rauhi Fattouh will become temporary president of the Palestinian Authority at Mr Arafat's death.
The Israeli cabinet approved a plan by Palestinian leaders today to bury Mr Arafat at his sandbagged West Bank headquarters, known as the Muqata, in Ramallah. The plan to turn it into a shrine will defuse a potential conflict with Israel by dropping a demand for a burial in Jerusalem.
Israel had been pushing for a Gaza burial, but the Palestinians wanted Jerusalem. Palestinians see Mr Arafat's Ramallah headquarters - his virtual prison for the last three years - as a symbol of his resistance. Burial there is less politically sensitive for Israel.
In Ramallah, bulldozers pushed aside rubble and hauled away piles of wrecked cars to prepare the compound for Arafat's burial.
Palestinian leaders accepted an offer from Egypt to host the main funeral service in Cairo - a site less problematic for foreign dignitaries - before Arafat is buried in Ramallah.
The service could be held at Cairo's international airport, security officials in Egypt said. That would allow Arab leaders to attend without dealing with Israel, which controls access to the Palestinian territories. It also would allow foreign leaders to pay their respects without having to visit the West Bank, where Palestinian security forces might not be able to guarantee their safety.
The cleric, Taisser Bayod Tamimi, rushed to Paris from the West Bank to be with the 75-year-old Palestinian leader, who is in critical condition at the Percy Military Training Hospital, connected to a respirator and a feeding tube.
"I prayed to God for his recovery," said Tamimi, who said he was with Arafat for more than an hour, reciting from the Muslim holy book. Tamimi said his close friend was very sick, "but he is still alive."
Tamimi said earlier that life support machines would not be turned off "as long as there are signs of life in the body of the president."
General Christian Estripeau, a hospital spokesman, told the newspaper Le Monde that Mr Arafat's death "could be a question of hours or, perhaps, days."