The US was yesterday consulting its European and Arab alliesover a fresh diplomatic initiativein the Middle East, as Yassir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, slipped deeper into a coma in a Paris hospital.

As the world waited for news of Mr Arafat's death, President George W. Bush spoke by telephone with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and, for the first time since last week's US election, with France's President Jacques Chirac.