Yasser Arafat followers promise revenge if murder is uncovered

Palestinian leaders promised to bring any potential suspects to justice for the death of Yasser Arafat after their former leader's body was exhumed on Tuesday for medical tests to determine if he was poisoned.

High and unexplained levels of polonium, a radioactive element, were found on Arafat's clothing and personal effects in Swiss tests carried out for al-Jazeera television. A Palestinian commission established to oversee the exhumation yesterday said it would petition the International Criminal Court for a trial if Mr Arafat was found to have been poisoned.

A former Palestinian Authority intelligence official close to Arafat before the leader's death aged 75 in November 2004, said he believed collaborators had worked with Israel to poison Arafat. Fahmi Shabameh, said senior figures may be implicated. Scientists took samples from the remains of the former Palestinian Authority president yesterday after opening his tomb in the grounds of the authority's headquarters, the Muqatta, in Ramallah.

Doctors predicted it would take up to three months before the results of tests by Russian, French and Swiss scientists were available.

Israel has opposed the authority's bid for UN full observer-state status, due to go before a UN vote tomorrow, partly because it fears the Palestinian leadership would exploit its postition to bring grievances before the ICC.

Arafat's death would be a possible test case because Palestinians have long insisted that Israel engineered his death after keeping him under siege in his headquarters for the last three years of his life in revenge for the Palestinian intifada. Israel denies the accusations.