RAMALLAH, May 15: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat bowed to international pressure on Wednesday and called for a complete overhaul of his Palestinian Authority, while shouldering the blame for unpopular deals to break the Israeli siege of his compound.

“I will present a new formula for the administration of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its ministries and security apparatus in order to rebuild it on a firmer basis,” he told a special parliamentary session.

“We want to totally separate the judicial, executive and parliamentary branches,” he said.

“We must prepare for elections and prepare for reforms. But let me have some time to prepare for that,” he said.

Arafat said he was still dedicated to peace as a strategic option.

“Peace was and will remain our strategic option. I will never give it away ... between us and the Israelis, because peace is in our joint interest,” he said.

He also reiterated calls for an end to attacks on Israeli civilians, saying they boosted Israel’s international standing to the detriment of the Palestinians.

“Palestinian and international opinion are today convinced that these operations not only do not serve our interests but rally a large part of the international community against us,” he said.

Arafat, speaking on the 54th anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel, a day known as the “catastrophe” to Palestinians, also took personal responsibility for highly unpopular deals that ended the sieges at his offices and Bethlehem’s Nativity Church by the Israeli army.

But he said reforms, already called for by the international community, Israel and many of his own ministers and security chiefs, were sorely needed in the current crisis.

“We are now badly in need of re-evaluation of our policies and our plans, in order to repair our errors, to correct our march toward independence,” which remains the Palestinian goal, said Arafat, speaking in a measured tone and at times laughing.

The United States has been calling for reforms, in particular to bring the various sprawling security branches under a unified control. CIA chief George Tenet is to help the Palestinians build a unified security force.

Arafat may have taken a gamble by shouldering the blame for the deals that ended the two sieges earlier this month and which saw almost 20 Palestinian wanted by Israel either put in jail under international guard or sent into indefinite exile.

The 72-year-old Palestinian has seen his longstanding popularity waver since the invasion and the internationally brokered agreements to end it, while his rival Sharon has ridden a crest, polling well at home and receiving broad backing from Washington, the key regional broker.

Arafat on Monday made his first tour of the West Bank after five months of Israeli confinement to Ramallah and had a cool reception, with security advisors even cautioning him not to visit the battered refugee camp of Jenin, the epicentre of last month’s battles.

The surprise cancellation of his Jenin camp visit was met with anger or indifference in the ruined community, but even in Bethlehem only small crowds gathered, with some calling on him not to forget the exiled militants.—AFP