US urged to back Arafat rivals

Palestinians say US policy is dictated by Israel

Israel has asked the US to open talks with Palestinian leaders other than Yasser Arafat to try to foster their influence as a possible alternative to the veteran PLO chairman.

There's a need for the US to open a line of talks with other leaders that are surrounding Arafat and opposing Arafat

Israeli Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer

Israeli Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer delivered the message during talks with Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington, ahead of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's session at the White House on Thursday.

Mr Ben-Eliezer said Mr Arafat should no longer take part in peace negotiations because of his refusal to crack down on Palestinian militants who attacked Israel and its interests in the occupied territories.

"There's a need for the US to continue to put pressure on Arafat and to open a line of talks with other leaders that are surrounding Arafat and opposing Arafat," he said after talks with Mr Powell.

Arafat's choice

Mr Ben-Eliezer suggested that other leaders - including Ahmed Qorei, Mahmoud Abbas (who both met Prime Minister Sharon last week) and security chiefs Jibril Rajoub and Muhammad Dahlan - might be more willing to tackle the militant problem in a way that Israel and the US want.

Mr Powell, meanwhile, has made his toughest statement on Mr Arafat yet, telling him to "act decisively to confront the sources of terror and choose, once and for all, the option of peace over violence".

Ben-Eliezer's visit paves the way for Mr Sharon's

Hoping to capitalise on President Bush's fiery "axis of evil" speech to Congress last week, Mr Sharon has said he plans to ask the US to cut all contacts with Mr Arafat, whom both Israel and the US accuse of trying to smuggle weapons from Iran.

Meanwhile, in an outspoken radio interview on Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said Europeans were "unanimous in not supporting" US policy in the Middle East.

"We think it is a mistake to blindly accept the policy of pure repression conducted by Ariel Sharon," Mr Vedrine said.

'Shameful'

Palestinian officials have called for a "fairer" US policy on the Middle East ahead of Mr Sharon's meeting with Mr Bush - his fourth while Mr Arafat has yet to receive an invitation.

Mr Arafat has been blockaded at his HQ since December

"It's very shameful that a small state like Israel is dictating the American decisions," Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rdeinah said.

The US Assistant Secretary of State for the region, William Burns, on a visit to Egypt, said Washington would continue to work with Mr Arafat's Palestinian Authority and still viewed him as the "elected leader of the Palestinian people".

However, Mr Bush last week accused Mr Arafat of "enhancing terror", reflecting the American view that the vessel Karine A, seized in the Red Sea by Israel in January, was trying to deliver Iranian arms to Gaza.

Analysts say Mr Sharon will get a sympathetic hearing in Washington when he calls for tough action against Iran and Iraq - two members of Mr Bush's "axis of evil".

"What Israel will want is intensive activity against Iranian terror," said Sharon aide Raanan Gissin on Wednesday. "Iran's tentacles, reaching through Syria and Lebanon, are liable to destabilise not only our affairs but they will also have an effect on an international level."