UN demands Israel end threat to Arafat

Palestinians have rallied behind their leader

The United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly in favour of resolution calling on Israel to lift its threat to exile Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

The vote - 133 in favour, four against and 15 abstentions - follows Tuesday's Security Council debate after which the United States vetoed a similar draft.

The resolution got huge support due to last-minute changes introduced by the European Union to condemn Palestinian suicide bombings as well as Israeli extrajudicial killings, says the BBC's UN correspondent Greg Barrow.

But even these concession were not enough to enlist the support of the US, which opposed the text, our correspondent says.

And unlike the Security Council, a General Assembly resolution has no binding powers - it simply carries the weight of global opinion, he says.

At the start of the special session requested by the Arab League, Palestinian observer to the UN Nasser al-Kidwa said deporting Mr Arafat would be "illegal" and "insane".

It would be a "terrorist act" that would lead to the destruction of the Palestinian Authority and the whole Middle East peace process.

But the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, said Mr Arafat had devoted all his energies towards blocking peace moves.

Mr Arafat, he said, was the "Palestinian people's greatest tragedy".

In the West Bank town of Ramallah, where Mr Arafat has been confined to his battered headquarters for more than a year, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath renewed Mr Arafat's call for a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire with Israel.

The Israeli Government has dismissed the offer.

Last week, Israel's security cabinet denounced Mr Arafat as an "obstacle to peace" and said he should be removed - although the cabinet did not say how or when it would do so.

Israeli minister have said this does not exclude killing the Palestinian leader - inviting widespread condemnation.

On Thursday, US President George W Bush blamed what he described as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's failed leadership.

"The people of the Palestinian territory must understand if they want peace, they must have leadership who is absolutely 100% committed to fighting off terror," Mr Bush said after talks with Jordan's King Abdullah.