RAMALLAH, Oct 28: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is to be taken by helicopter to Jordan on Friday morning from the compound where he had been under virtual house arrest for three years. From Jordan he will travel to Paris for emergency hospital treatment.

A French presidential spokesman confirmed on Thursday that Mr Arafat would be transferred to Paris "imminently" for hospital treatment, while a close ally of the ageing leader said he would be airlifted to Jordan, from where he would be flown to the French capital.

The Jordanian government confirmed that two helicopters would pick up Mr Arafat at dawn and take him to Amman, from where a plane would be waiting to take him to Paris.

Medics have diagnosed the 75-year-old leader as suffering from a potentially fatal blood disorder that requires further tests outside the West Bank.

"The president will be transferred to Paris Friday at 6.30am (0430 GMT)," said Munib al Masri, a businessman with close ties to the Palestinian leader.

"A Jordanian helicopter will come here and pick him up at the Muqataa, take him to Amman and then he will go to Paris," he said, referring to Mr Arafat's Ramallah compound.

France had earlier said it would send a plane to the region to airlift Mr Arafat to Paris.

The Israeli government, whose troops have been keeping him confined to his West Bank headquarters, earlier made clear it would not block his departure nor his return to the West Bank following treatment overseas.

As plans were being finalized for his transfer, fire trucks and bulldozers began clearing rubble and wreckage from the grounds of Mr Arafat's battered headquarters in order to create a landing space for the helicopter that will take him on the first leg of his trip.

US REACTION: And in Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the US administration hoped the Palestinian Authority chief would "get the medical care that he needs to return to health".

"In our view, it is not a political situation; it is a matter of someone being able to get proper medical care," he stressed.

"We hope that he gets the medical care that he needs to return to health," Mr Boucher said.-AFP