On Thursday morning Arafat was to meet Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Foreign Minister Louis Michel, before addressing the Belgian parliament. Belgium takes over the rotating European Union presidency in July.

In the afternoon the Palestinian leader was to meet European Parliament speaker Nicole Fontaine, European Commission President Romano Prodi and European Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Chris Patten.

He was to wind up his visit here by dining with Javier Solana, the EU high representative for foreign policy.

Earlier in Copenhagen Arafat appealed for the "urgent" dispatch of international observers to Israel and the Palestinian territories to help end the violence and revive the Middle East peace process.

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