Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has pleaded for "no more war" with Israel and said he accepted a proposal made by former US president Bill Clinton as a framework for a peace deal.

"Enough is enough," Arafat told Israeli daily Haaretz, repeating a phrase used recently by US President George W. Bush. He said he supported an initiative by a number of prominent Palestinians who published an advertisement against the suicide bombings.

He said unspecified "foreign" forces were exploiting young hopeless Palestinians and encouraging them to commit attacks in exchange for money. He said two families of suicide attackers from Jenin had received 30,000 dollars each from these foreigners.

He also said his advisers were amazed that Israel has not taken steps against the radical groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, preferring to focus its military campaign against the Palestinian Authority and Arafat's Fatah faction.

The interview was the first time Arafat had declared his acceptance of the Clinton proposal.

That plan, which Arafat has repeatedly been criticized for rejecting in the past, envisions an Israeli withdrawal from much of the territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war, shared Palestinian-Israeli control of Jerusalem and land swaps that would allow 80 percent of Jewish settlers in the West Bank to remain there.

It also calls for an equitable solution for Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes in the war that followed creation of the Israeli state in 1948. It proposes that right of return be granted only to those who qualify for it on humanitarian grounds and that others receive financial compensation.

Arafat said he agreed with border corrections and territorial exchanges, and that he was proposing to accept Israeli sovereignty over, and access to, the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem's Old City.

The Palestinian leader said he believed it was possible to reach peace with hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has vowed never to negotiate with the Palestinian leader.

Arafat said he would not rule out a much-vaunted US proposal for the creation of a temporary Palestinian state but said he had not yet received any information from Washington on the idea.

He also said he had not ruled out a plan put forward by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian parliamentary chief Ahmed Qorei, which includes the declaration of a Palestinian state to be followed by negotiations on borders, Jerusalem and refugees.

During the interview, which took place at Arafat's battered headquarters compound in Ramallah, the Palestinian leader said work had already begun on reforming his security services, a key demand from Israel and the United States. He said he was ready to cooperate with Israeli security, on condition that they let him reorganize his own security services.

Copyright 2002 AFP

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