Swiss scientists found at least 18 times the normal levels of radioactive polonium in the tested samples taken from late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's remains, al-Jazeera TV reported on Wednesday.

Former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat[Xinhua file photo]

The Qatari-based TV channel report said the scientists were confident that up to an 83 percent level that Arafat was poisoned with polonium.

Al-Jazeera said it had exclusively obtained the 108-page report, which was issued by the University Centre of Legal Medicine in Lausanne, in Switzerland.

"The report shows that high levels of polonium were found in Arafat's ribs and pelvis, and in soil stained with his decaying organs," said al-Jazeera.

French and Russian teams, along with the Swiss scientists, took the samples from Arafat's grave in the West Bank city Ramallah a year ago.

Suah Arafat, his widow, said on Wednesday that the results of the examinations handed to her "left no room for doubt," the report "prove that this is not a natural death but murder," she said. However, she didn't specify who stood behind it.

The latest finding might trigger a new debate on how the late Palestinian leader died. Many Palestinians and others have long suspected that Israel was responsible for his death.

"I believe that all fingers are pointed at the Israeli occupation ... who have experience in such cases of poisoning," Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization was quoted by CNN as saying.

Yousef also called for the establishment of a "criminal international committee" to probe the report.

Ali Muhana, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) minister of justice told Xinhua the PNA can't declare or publish the results at this moment.

"We don't have any comment to al-Jazeera report because we haven't received a copy of the report. We are waiting for the return of the members of the committee to investigate Arafat's death and then we will make our final announcement," said Muhana.

"The findings are inconclusive," Yigal Palmor, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said in a statement sent to Xinhua, adding that the report isn't supported by the facts. "We anticipate a wave of further accusations, but there's no proof," he added.

According to him, "even if there were traces of Polonium left in his system which may indicate poisoning, there's no proof that Arafat has been indeed poisoned. There are many questions still left unanswered."

He added that Israel is not involved in Arafat's death in any way and suggested to wait for the findings of an independent team of French scientists, also examining Arafat's death.

Attempts to determine Arafat's cause of death began last November, with experts digging out his body, which was buried in Ramallah amid surfacing doubt over his cause of death.

By October 2004, towards the end of the second Palestinian intifada, or Palestinian Uprising, Arafat had been confined for more than two years in his Ramallah presidential compound by Israeli troops.

According to escorts close to Arafat , he was elderly and frail but in good health and did not have any particular risk factor.

On October 12, 2004, Arafat suddenly fell ill after eating a meal. But Arafat's heath deteriorated swiftly and doctors failed to pinpoint the source of his sickness.

On Oct. 29, a wan and weak Arafat was carried in a wheelchair from his headquarters. He waved and blew kisses to the crowd surrounding his headquarters and was put aboard a helicopter and taken to Jordan.

From there a French government plane carried him to Paris for emergency treatment at Percy military hospital. French doctors were unable to diagnose or halt Arafat's decline and he soon lapsed into a coma.

On Nov. 11, 2004, Arafat, who symbolized the fight for Palestinian statehood, died at the age of 75.

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