Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, 71, met with his private doctor, the leading Jordanian neurologist Ashraf Kurdi during his 24-hour visit to Amman, his doctor said Sunday.
Kurdi told AFP it was only a "private meeting", which nevertheless left time for a routine check-up.
"The Palestinian president's condition is satisfactory", said Kurdi, who also repeated Arafat's shaking was not due to Parkinson's disease.
"The shaking is caused by high blood pressure and is not a threat to his health", he added.
Kurdi, a former Jordanian health minister, is a "close friend" of Arafat's, a Palestinian diplomatic source.
During General Abdel al-Mohti al-Sabawi's funeral in Gaza City Tuesday, Yasser Arafat had to be carried to his car by his bodyguards. The Palestinian leader had put this down to emotion and fatigue.
Kurdi said this incident was "not a sign of a deterioration in Arafat's health, but was clearly caused by emotion".
Arafat underwent a brain operation in 1992 in Amman to remove a blood clot, which had formed after a plane crash in Libya.
Kurdi announced in June 1999 that Arafat was not suffering from Parkinson's disease, but only from shaking due to stress.
Arafat left Amman Sunday after a 24-hour visit for talks with King Abdullah II on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in Washington, a Palestinian diplomatic source said.
The Palestinian leader headed by helicopter to Bethlehem in the West Bank where he is due to attend traditional midnight mass to mark Christmas in the town where the gospels say Jesus Christ was born, the source added -- AMMAN (AFP)
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