PARIS, Nov 11 (AFP) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will become the third major personality from the Middle East peace process to be buried on Friday, after Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan.
The funerals of the former Israeli prime minister and the Jordanian king -- like Arafat symbols of efforts to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict -- drew in representatives from around the world.
Arafat's funeral, due to be held Friday in Cairo, the city where he was born 75 years ago, will be a sombre occasion with many of the world's foreign ministers in attendance.
So far, few heads of state have promised to make the trip to Cairo, where Arafat will be granted a military funeral before being flown to the West Bank where he will be buried later in the day in his Ramallah compound.
The death of Rabin, assassinated on November 4 1995 by a Jewish extremist, unleashed an international wave of emotion.
At the signature of the Oslo peace accords on September 13, 1993, Rabin had exchanged a historic handshake with Arafat, the then leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
Along with Israel's opposition Labour party chief Shimon Peres, Arafat and Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.
One million Israelis, and hundreds of foreign dignataries attended the funeral.
Leaders of the Arab world made a symbolic trip to Jerusalem, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak making his first visit there as head of state, and King Hussein of Jordan visiting for the first time since 1967.
King Hussein declared in his tribute at the funeral he was "mourning a colleague and a friend, a man and a soldier who came to meet us crossing a gulf which separated us."
"We are not remaining silent. We raise our voices to express our commitment to peace for all the generations to come," he said.
The then US president Bill Clinton attended the funeral with a yarmulka, or skullcap, on his head, accompanied by his predecessors Jimmy Carter and George Bush senior, while then UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Gali, then British prime minister John Major and French President Jacques Chirac also took part.
Arafat did not attend, as he was not welcome by the Israeli authorities. Shortly after the burial, however, he conveyed his condolences to the Rabin family, unusually, not wearing his trademark Arab headdress, or keffiyeh.
Rabin's family said it was touched by the gesture.
"It is as if Arafat became a member of the family," Rabin's wife Lea said.
A similar wave of emotion around the world three years later, when
King Hussein of Jordan -- a fervent supporter of the creation of the Palestinian state and signatary of a peace treaty with Israel -- died of cancer on February 7, 1999, after 46 years on the throne.
Several dozen kings, cheiks, sultans, presidents and heads of government attended the funeral in Amman, along with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Israel sent 23 representatives, including president Ezer Weizman and his prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Arafat was also present, and talked with Netanyahu.
"The fact that are all here showing our attachment to a real peace in the Middle East has convinced me that I should try to have a new start to enlarge the peace efforts and to translate them into acts," Netanyahu said as the peace process was in trouble.
Syrian President Hafez al-Assad also surprised everyone travelling to the Jordanian capital for the funeral, as he did not get on with the defunt king.
Bill Clinton and three former presidents bowed together in front of the coffin.
11/11/2004 18:32 GMT - AFP