Jerusalem----May 31......Faisal Husseini, the leading PLO /PA official in Jerusalem, died this morning of a heart attack in Kuwait.

Husseini died in his hotel room before dawn, said an organizer of a conference where Husseini was scheduled to speak later today. Husseini, who was a close aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and directed the PLO presence in Jerusalem from Orient House, was 61. The Husseini family are blaming the Government of Kuwait for his death. They say that Husseini's body guard was attacked by a local policeman and as a result of the stress, Husseini suffered a cardiac arrest.

The news of Husseini's death was announced by the Voice of Palestine radio station in the West Bank and Gaza. "The Palestinian National Authority, the PLO and the Palestinian people announce with deep sorrow the death of the hero Faisal Husseini, who passed away this morning in Kuwait," the radio station said. "We have lost today one of our honest men, Faisal Husseini, who died early this morning at his hotel in Kuwait," Ahmed Abdel Rahman told The Associated Press when contacted on his mobile telephone.

Husseini arrived in Kuwait on Tuesday to attend a conference on resisting the normalization of relations with Israel, the first such visit to Kuwait since it severed ties with the Palestinian leadership after the Gulf crisis.

Husseini's visit to the oil-rich emirate came under fire from deputies of the Kuwaiti parliament after he declared upon arrival that Yasser Arafat is planning to visit Kuwait.

Several members criticized the visit which they said was premature before the Palestinian Liberation Organization apologize to Kuwait over its support to the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. Husseini denied that the PLO supported the invasion but he did not apologize. But he said that "the PLO position toward the invasion wasn't the best."

The managing editor of the Israel News Agency had met with Mr. Husseini in an attempt to get the support of the PLO in assisting to locate Israel's missing soldiers. Husseini was partly responsible for obtaining half of a missing Israel soldier's dogtag that was given to then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and then turned over to the Baumel family in Jerusalem.

Husseini was a highly educated and sensitive man who sincerely seeked a peace agreement with Israel. He was well liked and respected by many Israeli's for being perhaps the most realistic and pragmatic of all of the PLO / PA leaders. His family had a long history of anti-Semitism. Husseini's father, Abdel Kader, had been a symbol of armed resistance to Israel. In the 1948 Mideast war, the elder Husseini led Arab troops and was killed at the age of 40 in a battle over Jerusalem, but Faisal Husseini deviated from this past and learned Hebrew in order to create a bridge with the Israelis. Husseini accepted the idea of two States co-existing side by side. As a result of the recent Intifada and the hardening of positions, he left for Kuwait - an enemy of the PLO from the Gulf War - representing his people to secure support from the Arab world to further isolate Israel. If there was ever a man that the Israelis may have made peace with - it would have been with this elegant and open minded leader of the Palestinians.

As much as many Israelis were irritated by his successful attempt to operate out of Orient House in Jerusalem, the same Israelis see his death as a further blow to whatever was left of the peace process. Yossi Beilin, a leading Israeli dove and member of the Labour party, the biggest partner in Sharon's coalition government, said it would now be hard to replace Husseini as a counterpart in negotiations. "We lost a partner today," said Beilin. "We will miss him immediately in the daily life of Jerusalem, which is a city of both Jews and Arabs."