April 7, 2002	Sunday	Muharram 23, 1423

STOCKHOLM, April 6: Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson complained on Saturday about difficulties in carrying out telephone conversations with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, amid Palestinian claims that Israel was intentionally disrupting Arafat’s phone contacts.

“The situation becomes unreasonable when I as prime minister of a democratic country try to contribute to peace and cannot even conduct a conversation without disruption,” Persson told a gathering of Social Democrats in Stockholm.

Persson said Arafat had tried to reach him twice on Friday, before the connection was entirely broken during a third attempt. “Arafat represents the Palestinian people and he has his legitimacy. Without him as a partner we enter a chaotic situation,” he said.

The Palestinians said they had lost phone contact with Arafat for several hours on Saturday, as explosions were heard coming from his compound in Ramallah.—AFP