Yasser Arafat's political colleagues were dividing his powers between them last night and discussing ways of ensuring that the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip do not descend into chaos if he dies.
In Paris, meanwhile, supporters and well wishers gathered at the gates of the Percy Army Teaching hospital for a candle-lit vigil. Inside, Mr Arafat remained alive, his Jordanian doctor insisted.
"President Arafat does not have cardiac arrest or heart failure," said Dr Ashraf al-Kurdi.
"He is still alive. He is not clinically dead. There is no brain death, but his condition is deteriorating."
A senior Palestinian official said: "President Arafat is in very serious condition. He is still in a coma. The sense people are getting is that they are increasingly pessimistic."
Their comments followed an evening of extraordinary and conflicting claims. Mr Arafat was pronounced "brain dead" by Israeli radio and dead by the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Mr Jean-Claude Juncker.
"(He) passed away 15 minutes ago," Mr Juncker said while attending the EU summit in Brussels.
Not long before, Mr Arafat was visited by the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, and was alleged to have smiled at him.
Later, a hospital spokesman, in a statement "drafted in accordance with the respect for discretion requested by his wife", said Mr Arafat was alive but his condition "has become more complicated".
Mr Juncker subsequently retracted his earlier statement.
President Bush was told at his first press conference since his election victory that Mr Arafat had died and said: "God bless his soul" and then promised: "We will continue to work for a free Palestinian state that's at peace with Israel."
There was speculation last night that Mr Arafat was on a life support machine and not expected to regain the capacity to survive without it.
It is acknowledged that his condition is deteriorating. Meanwhile, Mr Arafat's colleagues in the various factions that comprise the Palestinian Authority, which was held together largely by him, were laying the groundwork for any announcement of his death. Mr Arafat is 75 and has never groomed a successor.
However, the PLO executive committee decided at an emergency meeting to give Prime Minister Mr Ahmed Korei some powers to deal with urgent administrative, financial and security matters.
Mr Korei, a leading moderate, is also expected to travel today from the Israel-occupied West Bank, where Mr Arafat has his headquarters, to the Gaza Strip where he will meet the heads of the Palestinian Authority security branches in a bid to ensure no internal warfare erupts once Mr Arafat departs.
In the West Bank town of Qalqilya, some 1,500 people took to the streets last night to demonstrate their support for Mr Arafat. Similar, though very much larger, demonstrations are expected if Mr Arafat's death is announced.
On the Israeli side, top security officials met to discuss the likely consequences of Mr Arafat's death, as well as day-after scenarios.
Possible burial sites for Mr Arafat were also on the agenda. Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon has said he will not permit the burial of Mr Arafat in Jerusalem, although there were reports that Palestinian leaders were looking to Gaza as a preferred burial site.
Opposition Labour Party leader Mr Shimon Peres, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace along with Mr Arafat 10 years ago, said that already "a new leadership is forming," which was "more firmly grounded and also has great determination to bring an end to the terrible problem of the Palestinian nation...
"They (the Palestinians) have to correct their main error, which is the takeover of Palestinian politics by terrorists."