MIDDLE EAST: Hundreds of Palestinians marched on President Yasser Arafat's headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah yesterday. They were protesting at the detention of the leader of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Israel had for weeks been urging Mr Arafat to arrest the PFLP leader, Mr Ahmed Saadat, whom it accuses of planning the killing of its Tourism Minister, Mr Rehavam Ze'evi, in October of last year.
Israel also wants the arrests of the two gunmen who carried out the shooting, who are also believed to be in Ramallah.
PFLP supporters also held protest marches in Bethlehem and Gaza City.
The PFLP issued a statement calling Mr Saadat's detention "a very dangerous political development" and demanding his immediate release.
Mr Mohammad Dahlan, Mr Arafat's Gaza security chief, said there was "no question" of Mr Saadat being extradited to Israel.
Indeed, Mr Arafat was reported to have told PFLP officials that Mr Saadat was his "guest" and might be released as soon as today.
Mr Saadat, who took over the PFLP leadership after Israel assassinated his predecessor, Mr Abu Ali Mustafa, in Ramallah last August, was arrested when attending a meeting at a Ramallah hotel on Tuesday night with Mr Arafat's intelligence chief, Mr Tawfiq Tirawi.
PA special forces stormed the room and took him away, PFLP officials said.
Israeli officials said that they doubted Mr Saadat would be held for long.
They also stressed that there was still no intention of allowing Mr Arafat to leave Ramallah.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, has kept the PA leader confined to the city since early December, and said Mr Arafat will be forced to stay there unless the two PFLP gunmen are arrested.
Mr Arafat's move against Mr Saadat comes amid a new spate of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
On Monday, a leading gunman from the Al-Aqsa Brigades of Mr Arafat's Fatah faction was killed in Tulkarm, apparently by Israel, and four people have since been killed in apparent revenge attacks.
The last of these attacks took place yesterday south of Jenin in the West Bank, when gunmen shot dead the driver of a car bearing yellow Israeli registration plates.
The victim turned out not to be an Israeli Jew, but a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem - territory annexed by Israel, where vehicles owned by Arabs are also issued with the yellow plates.
Israel has reintroduced military blockades of some West Bank cities in the wake of these attacks, and there are some reports of a military build-up, presaging a possible military offensive.
Mr Sharon told the visiting Spanish Foreign Minister, Mr Josep Pique, that the PA had obtained missiles with an eight kilometre range, and that there would be "a massive response" from Israel were it to use them.
However, Mr Sharon has postponed for a week a "strategic review" of Israeli relations with the PA, at which some ministers are expected to urge an immediate military effort to bring down Mr Arafat's regime.
Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict continue, with Mr Pique's visit and a US State Department official, Mr William Burns, dispatched to the region.
Mr Pique, who questioned Mr Sharon over last week's demolition of Palestinian homes in Gaza's Rafah refugee camp.
He also sought more details of the arms shipment seized by Israel in the Red Sea two weeks ago, urged Israel to ease conditions for Palestinians.