On Wednesday, diggers started clearing ground in Arafat's Muqataa compound.

A day earlier, rumours of Arafat's death � triggered by unconfirmed TV reports � had swept through Ramallah, but were quickly quashed by his closest colleagues who were in Paris.

They admitted his coma had deepened and spoke for the first time about a possible funeral - at the Muqata where he was held under virtual house arrest by Israel since 2001.