Acting as special envoy of President Hu Jintao,
Vice Premier Hui
Liangyu arrived in Cairo late on Thursday to attend the funeral
of Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian president.
The ceremony is due to be held on Friday morning,
and heads of state, ministers and other representatives from over
50 countries will 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.
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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 Israeli forces
for nearly three years.
Egypt has tightened security in and around Cairo
International Airport and blocked nearby main roads.
Arafat died at 3:30 AM (0230 GMT) on Thursday at a
French military hospital, where he had been receiving treatment for
the past two weeks.
(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2004)