PA police may kill Arafat

Israel's security chief Ami Ayalon warned Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat he risked an assassination attempt by rogue Palestinian police unless he cracked down on the force, Israeli television said on July 17.

During a meeting with Arafat in Gaza overnight, Ayalon, head of the Shin Beth security service, said, "Those elements that escape Arafat's authority could even make an attack on his life."

Earlier, Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai called on Arafat's Palestinian Authority to crack down on what he called its " terrorist" policemen, Israeli radio said. In a meeting late on July 17 with top Palestinian official Nabil Shaath, Mordechai charged that, "Palestinian policemen are committing terrorist attacks while Israel and the Palestinian Authority are trying to build peaceful relations."

Israel has arrested three Palestinian policemen whom it said were about to open fire on the Jewish settlement of Har Bracha near Nablus.

Palestinian officials have denied the allegations.