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Arafat holds talks with U.N. chief

UNITED NATIONS: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Thursday telephoned Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to discuss the "deteriorating situation" in the West Bank and Gaza as a result of Israel's closure of the territories, U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.

Boutros-Ghali, who was in Japan, told Arafat he had conveyed to the Security Council and the General Assembly a letter which the Palestinian leader sent him last Friday calling for pressure on Israel to lift the closure, which has battered the Palestinian economy.

Israel sealed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip, keeping almost 60,000 Palestinians from their jobs in Israel, after suicide bombings which killed 58 people in four incidents in Israel between February 25 and March 4.

The day before Boutros-Ghali received Arafat's letter, the U.N. chief wrote to Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres urging him to "consider lifting, at least gradually" the closure of the territories. Israel said on Monday it would let 3,000 Gazans work on Israeli farms.

Islamic Jihad leader

GAZA: A leader of the militant Islamic Jihad organisation has been captured after being on the run for more than a month, a Palestinian security official said on Thursday.

"Forces arrested Nafez Azzam at his home in Rafah (in the Gaza Strip) last night," said Rashid Abu Shbak, a colonel in the Palestinian Preventive Security Service.

He said Azzam was being held by the Palestinian General Intelligence service. Most of the political leaders of Islamic Jihad and the militant Moslem group Hamas are in detention.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have claimed responsibility for four suicide bombings which killed 58 people in Israel.

Since the attacks began on February 25, Israel and the Palestinian Authority have rounded up hundreds of suspected Islamic militants.

"We have arrested a great number of militant activists and put our hands on large amounts of their weapons," said Shbak.

Azzam's reported arrest coincides with a public outcry over the PLO security forces' sweeping crackdown on militants. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat admitted that human rights violations had taken place and pledged to curb them.-Reuter