WASHINGTON, Jan 24: The United States, maintaining its recent hardline stance against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, continues to believe that the onus for ending the current cycle of violence in the Middle East rests with the Palestine Authority (PA).

This came out in State Department spokesman Richard Boucher’s briefing on Wednesday afternoon when he said, while the US had made it clear to Israel and the Palestine Authority its belief that both sides should act wisely, at present the emphasis needed to be put on ending the “violence” by Palestinians.

Mr Boucher said “at this juncture, we think that steps by Chairman Arafat to end the violence and to end arms smuggling are what’s important.”

Israel should carefully consider the actions it undertook, Mr Boucher said, but in the last few weeks the US had been trying to urge Mr Arafat to do more to control the activities of Palestinian groups.

Secretary of State Colon Powell talked to Mr Arafat on Wednesday, and was believed to have conveyed the same message to the Palestinian leader.

The US has reportedly rejected a request from Mr Arafat for special envoy General Anthony Zinni to be sent back to the region.