A new report earlier suggested he died from polonium poisoning.

“We say that Israel is the prime and only suspect in the case of Yasser Arafat's assassination,” AFP quoted Palestinian committee chairman Tawfiq Tirawi as saying in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

“We will continue to carry out a thorough investigation to find out and confirm all the details and all elements of the case,” he said.

A Swiss forensic team has found that Arafat was poisoned to death in 2004 with radioactive polonium.

A team of experts, including from Lausanne University Hospital's Institute of Radiation Physics, opened Arafat's grave in the West Bank city of Ramallah last November, and took samples from his body to seek evidence of alleged poisoning.

The Swiss team discovered levels of polonium at least 18 times higher than normal in Arafat's ribs, pelvis and in the soil that absorbed his remains.

Arafat died on Nov. 11, 2004 at a French military hospital, at the age of 75, a month after falling ill at his West Bank compound. At the time, French doctors said he died of a stroke and had a blood-clotting problem, but records were inconclusive about what caused that condition.

After his death, Palestinians launched their own investigation, questioning dozens of people in Arafat's headquarters, including staff and bodyguards, but no suspects emerged.

NJF/NJF