Arafat promises Palestinian changes

The head of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, has announced that he is carrying out a reshuffle of his government.

In a message to the Palestinian legislature, Mr Arafat also promised to submit a long-overdue budget by the end of the month and to begin signing some of the bills passed by the legislature.

In return the Legislative Council has voted not to make public the findings of an investigation it carried out into alleged corruption in the Palestinian Authority.

Instead, the report is being presented directly to Mr Arafat.

The speaker of the legislature, Ahmed Qorei, said this marked a fresh start in relations between the Council and Mr Arafat's government.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service