Arafat judges to visit West Bank

French judges investigating the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat are seeking to travel to Ramallah to probe allegations he was poisoned.

His family believes he had been poisoned with polonium-210, a radioactive element, when he died at a military hospital near Paris in 2004, Kazinform refers to BBC.

French judges opened a murder enquiry into his death last month.

The investigating magistrates will seek to exhume his body to take samples for testing.

Arafat's widow, Suha, asked the Palestinian Authority and Arab League to co-operate with the French justice

system's investigations.

"I respectfully ask the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League to suspend all initiatives while the French justice system is looking into the case," she said in a statement, according to Reuters.

The French murder investigation, launched last month, offered: "the incontestable guarantee of independence and neutrality," she added.

The Palestinian Authority has said that it would be willing to order the exhumation of Arafat's body from the stone-clad mausoleum in which it is buried in the presidential compound in Ramallah in the West Bank.

Arafat's medical records said he had a stroke resulting from a blood disorder but, according to Swiss scientists hired by a TV documentary crew, traces of polonium were detected on some of his belongings, including his trademark keffiyeh.

Many Palestinians continue to believe that Israel poisoned him. Israel has denied any involvement.

Arafat led the Palestine Liberation Organisation for 35 years and became the first president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996.

He fell violently ill in October 2004 and died two weeks later, at the age of 75.