Chaos Greets Arafat's Coffin

The helicopter bearing Yasser Arafat's coffin touched down in the West Bank amid chaotic scenes today, as thousands of mourners swarmed into the Ramallah compound where the Palestinian leader is to be buried.

Huge crowds burst through the gates and climbed over the walls to pay their final respects to the man who embodied their dreams of statehood. As the helicopter landed, gunshots rang out and the crowd chanted "Welcome, welcome Abu Ammar!" using his nom-de-guerre.

It took about 30 minutes for Palestinian security forces to clear enough space in the crowd for the helicopter's steps to be lowered and the casket to be transferred to a waiting hearse. Arafat is to be buried later today in a marble grave at the compound.

Senior Palestinian clerics have said he will be laid to rest in a concrete coffin that could be moved later to nearby Jerusalem, where the Palestinian leader wished to be buried. Israel has vetoed a burial there, however, fearing this would strengthen Palestinians' claim to a capital in the city.

The dramatic scenes in Ramallah were in stark contrast to the funeral service that took place a few hours earlier in a military mosque in Cairo, attended by presidents and ministers from more than 50 countries.

"He has served his people all his life, until he faced his God, with courage and honesty. Let us pray for his soul," the Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, leading the service, told the gathered dignitaries.

The service was broadcast live on Egyptian television, with all foreign journalists barred from the mosque. It was attended by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and state leaders from Arab and African nations, including Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.

Most European countries sent lower level delegations - the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, attended on behalf of the UK government. The US sent Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, in what was seen as a slight attesting to its boycott of Arafat as an "obstacle to peace".

As expected, Israel dispatched no one. "I do not think we should send a representative to the funeral of somebody who killed thousands of our people," Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said.

After the brief ceremony, which was closed to the public and held amid tight security in a Cairo suburb, the coffin was transferred to a horse-drawn carriage for a military procession through the city bearing all the hallmarks of a state occasion.

The surrounding streets, many of them sealed off, were lined with hundreds of police. Soldiers on rooftops surveyed the area with binoculars.

Doctors at the Percy military hospital in Paris, where Mr Arafat died in the early hours of yesterday, aged 75, after several days in a coma, have refused to reveal the cause of his death, citing family confidentiality.