Palestinian leaders who had planned to visit ailing leader Yasser Arafat in Paris later Monday have canceled their trip, head of Arafat's office Tayeb Abdel Rahim said.

Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath and Mahmoud Abbas, No. 2 of the Palestine Liberation Organization, had planned to head for Paris Monday.

The cancellation came after Arafat's wife Suha Arafat accused them of traveling to Paris with plans to bury their leader "alive".

Rahim told a press conference that the three Palestinian leaders wanted to go to France to give thanks to French President Jacques Chirac and to get direct information about Arafat's condition from his doctors.

Since Arafat has been transferred to the Percy Military Hospital outside Paris on Oct. 29, Qurei and Abbas have been sharing powers to run the Palestinian daily affairs.

The Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite TV channel said earlier that Arafat's medical condition was critical, adding that "his health condition can have all possibilities."

In an interview with al-Jazeera, Suha insisted that her husband was on the road to recovery and would return home but "Abbas, Qurei and Shaath, who are trying to inherit his power, want to bury Arafat alive."

Suha is one of only a handful of people who have been authorized to see the 75-year-old Palestinian leader in the last 10 days.