MIDDLE EAST: In the first sign that he was ready to accept foreign intervention in the reform of his security apparatus, the Palestinian Authority chairman, Mr Yasser Arafat, said yesterday that the US, Egypt and Jordan would be integrally involved in revamping the multiple arms of his security network.
"There is an agreement that Americans, Egyptians and Jordanians will come and administer the training of our security branches," Mr Arafat told the Arab satellite television network, al-Jazeera, in an interview. The Palestinian leader, who is under pressure from the US to reform his authority, but knows that bowing to US dictates could strengthen his Islamic opponents, gave no further details and did not say when the programme might begin.
In the course of the interview, Mr Arafat described talks in Washington between a Palestinian delegation and US officials as "positive and constructive". The Palestinian delegation to the US, headed by Mr Saeb Erekat, met the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, and the National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, on Thursday to discuss security issues and reforms. "We're anxious to get some specific action started, especially with respect to security," Mr Powell said on Thursday.
Clashes in the West Bank continued, with a 40-year-old Palestinian man killed by Israeli troops in Tulkarm. Witnesses said he was hit after troops opened fire on curfew violators. The army said the soldiers fired only after being shot at.
The army continued its sweep for militants yesterday, arresting Mr Ibrahim Dahmas, a senior member of the radical Islamic Hamas group, in the West Bank town of Qalqilya. The military said Mr Dahmas was wanted for orchestrating bomb attacks.
Reuters adds: The militant Palestinian Islamist group, Hamas, said yesterday it would target Israeli leaders in response to the Jewish state's tactic of killing senior Palestinian militants behind attacks on Israelis.
Mr Usama Hamdan, who heads Hamas in Lebanon, said Israel's killing in recent weeks of two senior Hamas figures - one in an air strike that left 14 others dead - meant Hamas's military actions should expand beyond suicide bombings in public places.
"From here on out, targeting a leader, minister or the head of the government of the Zionist entity will be treatment in kind," he said.