July 15, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 14, 1424

LONDON, July 14: Britain rebuffed visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s appeal on Monday to cut ties with Yasser Arafat, who Israel has accused of undermining reformist Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

“(Foreign Secretary Jack Straw) made it clear that the British position, which is also that of the European Union, is that we would continue to have dealings with Arafat,” a British official said after Straw held talks with Sharon.

Sharon was scheduled to hold talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair later in the day on ways to shore up an internationally backed Middle East peace “road map”.

Britain has long argued it cannot ignore the democratically elected Palestinian president although Israel and the United States shun him, accusing him of fomenting violence in a nearly three-year-old uprising for independence.

Arafat denies the allegations.

“Any contact with Arafat weakens Abbas,” said a senior Israeli official who accompanied Sharon to London.

Blair was expected to press Sharon on issues such as a freeze, mandated by the peace plan, on the expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied land Palestinians want for a state and a release of Palestinian prisoners. Sharon is visiting Britain and Norway this week to highlight new peacemaking credentials.—Reuters