RAMALLAH, West Bank ? An ailing Yasser Arafat collapsed Wednesday night, was unconscious for about 10 minutes and remained in a serious condition. A team of Jordanian doctors was urgently summoned to treat the ailing Palestinian leader, whose wife headed to her husband’s side from Paris.

An official in Arafat’s office said the Palestinian leader had created a special committee of three senior officials, including Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, to run Palestinian affairs the while 75-year-old Arafat during his continuing illness.

Other Palestinian officials, including his spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh, denied a temporary leadership group was formed.

The Palestinian leader was eating soup during a meeting with Qureia, former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, and another official between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. (1 p.m. and 2 p.m. CDT) when he vomited, a bodyguard said.

Arafat was taken quickly to the clinic inside his Ramallah compound, where he collapsed and was unconscious for about 10 minutes, the guard said.

Palestinian officials soon descended on the sandbagged, partially demolished compound where Arafat has been confined for 2 1/2 years. The officials milled about the courtyard, waiting for news outside Arafat’s three-story headquarters that was bathed in spotlights.

Israeli security officials said Arafat’s wife, Suha, who lives in France with their young daughter, was expected to arrive today, as were the Jordanian doctors who were called to treat Arafat.

Arafat has been known to be ill for two weeks, but reports about his ailment have varied widely.

Palestinian officials said he had the flu. Israeli officials speculated he might have stomach cancer, but two of his doctors said Wednesday a blood test and a biopsy of tissue from his digestive tract showed no evidence of cancer.

Members of the media, police officers and West Bank residents gather outside Palestinian leader Yasser Araft's headquarters, background, in Ramallah early today. Arafat was reported seriously ill on Wednesday, although Palestinians were downplaying the situation.

On Tuesday, a hospital official said Arafat was suffering from a large gallstone. The gallstone, while extremely painful, is not life-threatening and can be easily treated, the official told AP.

Arafat has shown symptoms of Parkinson’s disease since the late 1990s.

Arafat’s health crisis highlights Palestinian unpreparedness for their leader’s death, making a chaotic transition all but inevitable. Arafat refuses to groom a successor; rival security chiefs already have battled each other in the streets.

Qureia and Abbas both have been touted as possible political heirs to Arafat, though the Palestinian leader has bickered with each of them, blocking their attempts to limit his powers.

“It’s only natural to expect that there would be either a power struggle or there would be a loss of cohesion,” Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi said.

Analysts said it could take years for a leader to emerge, hurting prospects for already stagnant attempts at peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians. Nevertheless, Israel and the United States hold out hope a post-Arafat Middle East would be more conducive to peace because of what they see as Arafat’s blind eye to terror and opposition to reform.

Polls show the second most popular Palestinian after Arafat is Marwan Barghouti, a leader of Fatah’s young guard. But Barghouti is serving five consecutive life terms in an Israeli prison for involvement in terror attacks.