AS THE Palestinians await news of the health of their leader, Yasser Arafat, Daily Echo reporter Sharen Green recalls how she met the man who has spent his life fighting for the creation of a nation state in May this year.

As the Echo went to press the chief of the Paris hospital where he is being treated said Mr Arafat's health had not worsened and he is "stable".

Earlier his spokeswoman said he was clinging onto life and was not brain dead.

But she acknowledged Mr Arafat, 75, was "between life and death".

Doctors still have no diagnosis.

Anxious Palestinian officials are looking for ways to prevent unrest if their leader dies.

Echo reporter Sharen Green was on a fact finding mission to Jordan, Israel and the West bank for the Dorset Palestinian/Israeli Peace Group when she met the leader and shook his hand. She writes: "We penetrated the heavily defended bunker - a mini-war zone in the middle of Ramallah - to come face-to-face with the icon of the Palestinian people.

"The patron of our trip was the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, who has been visiting the President every week since he was holed up in the bombed-out building and who ignored any criticism of his close relations.

"We were there representing the Dorset Palestinian/Israeli Peace Group of which I am a founder member.

"President Arafat welcomed us graciously and made his case for a separate Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza in fluent English.

"He showed particular empathy for the Christian Palestinians, who have suffered during the Israeli occupation.

"It was obvious that he lived a very Spartan life as we sat round his huge cabinet table in the window-less room where he had been confined for so long.

"The veteran politician had become very frail beneath his trademark kaffiyeh - his skin was grey and he had a marked tremor.

"But he was still recognisable as the revolutionary who was making a name for himself in Jordan's capital of Amman when I worked there following the Six Day War.

"He was emerging then as leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

"All my students revered him as he focused their wounded pride and offered them hope of return to the land they had fled during Israel's pre-emptive strike.

"He was then demanding a country in historic Palestine where Jews, Muslims and Christian Arabs were equal citizens.

"Although a hero among the thousands of refugees in Jordan, he was a big problem for the country's King Hussein who didn't need a rival "king" in the country.

"We spent several days under curfew while the Jordanian army and the PLO slugged it out in the summer of 1970.

"The Red Cross evacuated us to Cyprus and Arafat was ousted from Jordan for good in the bloody showdown that was Black September."

On Friday a dozen supporters continued to hold a vigil outside the hospital for the man who many Palestinians revere, but who Israel and the United States have been shunning as a terrorist.

First published: November 6