Israel 'proves' Arafat's links with militants

Mr Arafat is isolated in his Ramallah compound

By Richard Miron The BBC's correspondent in Jerusalem

The Israeli army has documents which it says prove a link between Yasser Arafat and militants who carried out attacks against Israeli civilians.

The documents were taken from Mr Arafat's compound in Ramallah, and apparently link the Palestinian leader to a number of individuals sought by Israel.

Palestinian officials say the documents are fake

Senior Palestinian figures, however, say the documents are fakes.

The Israeli army's intelligence branch has been displaying the evidence, which it claims was gathered from two truck-loads of documents taken from the Ramallah compound.

One document allegedly shows a hand-written note by the Palestinian leader approving payments to three West Bank activists, all of whom the army says were involved in arranging attacks against Israelis - including one which claimed the lives of six people at a religious celebration.

'Ideological back-up'

Colonel Miri Eisen of the Israeli army's intelligence branch says the documents are compelling evidence of the Palestinian leader's complicity in these actions.

"The bottom line is that we have direct funding of money requested directly to Arafat, and by him, with his own signature, given to these people who are known terrorists," she said.

Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says the documents have been manufactured by Israel to discredit Yasser Arafat.

But the Israeli army and government officials have been stressing what they regard as the importance of the findings.

The Israelis are using the alleged disclosures to ideologically underpin their military campaign against both the militants and the Palestinian authority as a whole.