Earlier, as a top Islamic cleric read passages from the Quran at Yasser Arafat's hospital bedside Wednesday, a Palestinian official gave the bleakest assessment yet of the leader’s condition, saying he is suffering from kidney and liver failure and that his brain is only partially functioning.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, speaking in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said the 75-year-old Arafat was in a deep coma and that all his organs except for heart and lungs “are not functioning well.” ...