While Yassir Arafat lies on his death bed in Paris, an unseemly row has broken out over where he should eventually be laid to rest.

The veteran Palestinian leader - described this morning as hovering "between life and death" - has said in the past that he wants to be buried near Jersusalem's al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam's holiest sites, but a place that is also revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.

Israelis, keen not to reinforce Arab claims on any part of the Holy City, reject that suggestion.

"They will choose where to bury him," Yosef Lapid, the Israeli Justice Minister, said today. "But he will not be buried in Jerusalem, because Jerusalem is the city where Jewish kings are buried and not Arab terrorists."

Palestinian leaders are refusing to discuss Mr Arafat's burial, or negotiate with the Israelis, until he is actually dead. Aides today again denied reports that Mr Arafat was being kept alive by a life-support machine while Palestinians prepared for his death.

A spokesman at the Percy military hospital in the Paris suburb of Clamart said tonight Mr Arafat's condition was "considered stable" over the past 24 hours.

Rival factions sat down together in the Gaza Strip this afternoon to discuss life after Mr Arafat and how to ensure a peaceful succession for a man who has come to embody the Palestinian struggle for statehood. "We are here today to reflect our unity," said Mohammed al-Hindi, a spokesman for the Islamic Jihad group. "We are one nation looking for its freedom and fighting for its land and we are not separate groups fighting here and there."

But that succession will have to include organising a funeral that satisifies Palestinian dignity - and could be held as quickly as possible after Mr Arafat's death, in accordance with Muslim tradition.

Mr Lapid said today that Israel would allow the Palestinian leader to be buried only in Gaza.

Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Foreign Minister, said that there have been no contacts with Israel on funeral arrangements. "We’ve heard about their plans only from the media," he told the Associated Press from Gaza.

Mohammed Bassiouni, Egypt’s former ambassador to Israel, said that he expected a memorial service to take place outside the Palestinian territories and the burial to be in Gaza.

Mr Bassiouni, who heads the national security committee in Egypt’s 264-seat Shura Council, said that his country could help with security arrangements at a Gaza burial.

Mr Arafat’s clan, al-Kidwas, are originally from Gaza, though the Palestinian leader grew up in Jerusalem and Cairo.

The family has a small plot of 25 to 30 graves in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. But that overgrown patch is in the middle of a busy vegetable market and would not be considered appropriate.

Other burial options include a seaside plot next to his old headquarters in Gaza City, or Gaza City’s "martyrs’ cemetery" east of the city, close to Israel.

A funeral in Gaza would pose a security nightmare for foreign dignitaries. There has been increasing chaos in the coastal strip in recent months, with rival groups of gunmen and security chiefs battling for control ahead of a planned Israeli troop withdrawal next year.

Under instructions from Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister, Israeli officials have refused to discuss Mr Arafat's health or burial arrangements - except for the blunt-speaking Mr Lapid.

But officials privately acknowledge that they have been told to prepare for the arrival of foreign envoys, although the Palestinians were not yet ready to co-operate with the planning.

Israel anticipated receiving envoys from countries with which it has diplomatic relations and providing security for them until they pass into Palestinian-controlled territory, the officials said. Envoys from other countries would likely arrive across the border from Jordan or Egypt, depending on the location of the grave site. It was unclear who would attend.

Although Mr Arafat was elected president of the Palestinian Authority, formed after he returned from exile in 1994, it is not a widely recognised government. The Palestinians have observer status at the United Nations.

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