Chinese special envoy arrives in Cairo

Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu, special envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao, arrived in Cairo late Thursday to attend late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's funeral due on Friday morning.

Heads of state, ministers and representatives from more than 50 countries are due to participate in the memorial ceremony to pay their last respects to the 75-year-old veteran leader.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the UN special representative for the Middle East peace process Terje Roed-Larsen and US Assistant Secretary of State William Burns are among the attendees.

Following the funeral, Arafat's body will be airlifted to his battered headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah for burial, where he had been confined by Israel for nearly three years.

Egypt has tightened security in and around the Cairo International Airport and blocked nearby main roads for security concerns.

Arafat, 75, died at 3:30 am (0230 GMT) Thursday at a French military hospital, where he had been treated for a blood disorder over the past two weeks.

Source: Xinhua