The United States has told Israel that expelling Palestinian President Yasser Arafat would not help the cause of peace.
State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said US Secretary of State Colin Powell made the point in a call to Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer conveyed the same message to Israeli officials.
"We ... have made clear our view that expelling Arafat is neither helpful nor constructive," he told reporters, adding that Powell had spoken to Shalom, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath, Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan al-Muasher and EuropeanUnion foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Friday.
Asked if the topic of Arafat came up in the conversations, he replied: "The secretary reiterated, restated our views and made known how we see the situation."
The United States has sought for more than a year to marginalize Arafat and to promote other Palestinians it views as more likely to make peace and to crack down on attacks against Israel.
However, US officials fear that any effort to expelArafat, threatened by Israel yesterday, would give him aplatform and enhance his standing among Palestinians.
"It would ... distract the parties from the task at hand,which is, as we mentioned earlier, to having a (Palestinian)cabinet free of association from terror, having a primeminister that's empowered to act," Ereli said.
The United States had sought to build up former PalestinianPrime Minister Mahmoud Abbas as an alternative to Arafat, buthe failed to win full control of Palestinian security servicesfrom the Palestinian president and subsequently resigned.
Washington has urged his designated successor, Ahmed Qurie,to win control of the security forces and take on Palestinianmilitants who attack Israel but it is unclear if he will do soand whether Arafat will cede control of the security forces.