TEL AVIV, March 22: A top aide to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Monday Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was even more dangerous than Sheikh Yassin.

"Yasser Arafat is the most dangerous and destructive man that the Middle East has ever seen," M4 Sharon's political security advisor Amos Gilaad told public radio. "He aspires to the total destruction of Israel, wrapping himself in the cloak of pacifism while at the same time supervising terrorism," the reserve general said.

Mr Sharon's government has declared Arafat an "absolute obstacle" to peace, confining him under virtual house arrest to his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah for more than two years. -AFP