In the West Bank town of Ramallah, home to Arafat's headquarters known as the Muqataa, merchants said they doubted their lives would change much should Arafat's eventual successor come from within his inner circle.

Outside Arafat's battered compound, where the 75-year-old was held under virtual house arrest by Israel for nearly three years before being airlifted to Paris for treatment a week ago, several hundred people, desperate for news, staged an overnight vigil.

But there were no noisy demonstrations and the area was nearly deserted early Friday, which is usual on the Muslim day of rest.

"People love Arafat, but they don't know what's going on and they don't trust the leaders around them," said 19-year-old Hanna Asbah, a Christian who runs a jewelry shop with his uncle in Manara, in the center of town.

"We don't know anything, we have no news. People are not going to the Muqataa because they will come when he's dead and they don't trust the officials so there's no need to come."

Arafat has failed to anoint a clear successor and while he remains a symbol of the struggle for independence after nearly half a century, his people are less enamored of other officials in his corruption-plagued Palestinian Authority.

A vegetable seller in the Manara market noted: "All people around Arafat are dirty people."

Arafat was "between life and death" in the Percy military hospital southwest of Paris but is not brain dead, the permanent Palestinian envoy to France, Leila Shahid, told French radio.

French medical sources have said the Palestinian leader is in an irreversible coma and will not recover.

"Some say he is doing ok, others say he is dead. We can't have confidence in the people that surround Arafat, even for information about his health," said a hardware dealer who asked not to be identified.

"When Arafat dies, the same people will be in power," he added, as a means of explaining why Palestinians were not converging en masse to protest at the Muqataa.

"Abu Mazen is the most capable to succeed," said Said Amru, 19, a technology student, who stayed late into the night with friends outside the compound.

Mahmud Abbas, or Abu Mazen, is currently number two in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and is seen as the frontrunner to succeed Arafat.

"People like Abu Amar (Arafat) but they know that he is not there," said 32-year-old clothing seller Zaki Rimawi.

"They are not interested in the others and in any event, many people have a hard time getting around due to the Israeli roadblocks at the edges of the city," he added.

Israel imposed a clampdown on the West Bank Friday and increased security around Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound amid fears of an outbreak of unrest in the event of Arafat's death.

"What do you want me to say? Most people have got nothing from this government," an auto parts vendor said, referring to the Palestinian Authority.

"When the Israelis invaded Ramallah, government officials sent their wives and children to Jordan and Cairo, and no one came to knock on our doors to ask 'Do you need anything?'" he added angrily.

"Abu Ammar is the leader but the mafia is all around him, and this mafia destroyed the link he had with the people," the vendor concluded.