Supporters gather in front of Clamart military hospital where Arafat  is being treated

An aide to ailing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat says French doctors have officially ruled out leukemia as the cause of the Palestinian leader's health crisis.

Leila Shahid, the Palestinian envoy to France, said the finding is based on tests on Mr. Arafat, who is being treated in a suburban Paris hospital.

Reading from a medical statement Tuesday, Ms. Shahid said tests show anomalies in Mr. Arafat's digestive functions. The statement offered no further details. The envoy also said the patient's general condition has improved in the past 72 hours.

No time limit has been set for Mr. Arafat's stay in France. The French government airlifted the 75-year-old leader from the Middle East late last week, after attending physicians there could not identify the cause of his two-week illness.