JERUSALEM, Sept 14: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was quoted on Tuesday as suggesting that Israel would either assassinate Palestinian President Yasser Arafat or expel him from the occupied territories.

Senior Israeli officials have made threats to "remove" Mr Arafat before, but political sources say such a move is unlikely as long as the United States opposes it.

Mr Sharon told a leading Israeli daily in an interview on the eve of the Jewish new year holiday that he saw no difference between Mr Arafat and two leaders of the militant Hamas group, whom Israeli forces assassinated last spring.

"I don't see any difference. They all follow a policy of murder (of Israelis). Just as we have done with the other murderers so shall we do with Arafat," Mr Sharon said, without saying when such action might take place. "We have acted against Ahmed Yassin and (Abdel-Aziz) al Rantissi at the time we thought was right," he added. -Reuters