PARIS - Yasser Arafat is in a coma and is "between life and death," though he is not brain dead, his spokeswoman said today. Doctors still had no diagnosis, but anxious Palestinian officials were already looking for ways to prevent unrest if their 75-year-old leader dies.

Leila Shahid, the Palestinian envoy to France, strongly denied French and Israeli media reports that Arafat was being kept alive on life support amid conflicting reports over his condition after a sharp decline a day earlier.

"I can assure you that there is no brain death," Shahid told French RTL radio. "He is in a coma. We don't know the type, but it's a reversible coma. ... Today we can say that, given his condition and age, he is at a critical point between life and death."

Shahid suggested the coma occurred after he was put under anesthesia to have additional medical tests, including an endoscopy, colonoscopy and a biopsy of the spinal cord.

"He may or may not wake up," Shahid said, adding that "all vital organs are functioning."

Endoscopy and colonoscopy, where a camera is threaded down the throat and up the colon to inspect the intestine, do not involve anesthesia - but a spinal cord biopsy might. Experts say it is highly unlikely that Arafat's coma was caused by a reaction to a general anesthetic and that it is far more probable that deterioration in his underlying illness led to the coma.

With Arafat fighting for life, Palestinians sought to project unity ahead of what is feared will be a divisive succession struggle. Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO met with members of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, along with other factions, in the Gaza Strip today.

Arafat has not appointed a successor and it appears that in any transition period, the Palestinians will be led by a collective, headed by Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and Arafat's No. 2 in the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas.

Much will depend on how well the two men get along, since the division of powers is not clearly defined. As prime minister, Qureia is to deal with day-to-day affairs of governing and he has assumed some of Arafat's financial and security powers. Abbas is to handle diplomacy, Palestinian officials said.

Palestinian lawmaker Saeb Erekat chided Israel after some celebrated reports that Arafat had died.

"I hope the Israeli public will show sensitivities. I've seen some Israelis dancing in the streets, hugging each other other yesterday," Erekat told CNN. "I think it's alien... I cannot describe my feelings. It's heartbreaking to see Israelis hugging and kissing in such circumstances."

Israel's Justice Minister Yosef Lapid

said today that the Palestinian leader was being kept alive artificially, but the source of his information was not clear.

"We all know that clinically he is dead but we won't interfere with internal Palestinian affairs. They'll announce his death when they find it proper," he told Associated Press Television News.