TEL AVIV, Sept 30: The Israeli siege of Yasser Arafat so alarmed the United States as it sought UN support for hitting Iraq that it roused its ambassador to Israel, an Orthodox Jew, on his Sabbath holiday for a special mission.

US diplomats said Ambassador Dan Kurtzer drove to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s desert ranch to read him the riot act: “Your siege is not helping our Iraq policy. Please get out of Arafat’s compound now.”

Sharon stood firm, still fuming over Palestinian suicide bombings that spurred the siege.

Three days later, last Wednesday, Kurtzer demanded at a damage-control meeting Israel’s foreign minister arranged with foreign envoys that Israel justify the siege.

Mounting US fury with its closest Middle East ally culminated in a no-nonsense message to a Sharon adviser hastily dispatched to the White House. Israel finally yielded on Sunday with an army retreat from the Palestinian president’s compound.

Israel’s climbdown before the US strategic agenda may curb its scope for future military action against Palestinian suicide bombers spearheading a two-year-old uprising for independence.

In aborting the siege without grabbing militants Israel alleged were sheltering inside the compound, the Jewsish state set aside security goals to further its superpower patron’s bid to win over allies for an invasion of Iraq.

“The Palestinians clearly hope that as the Middle East gets closer to a US-Iraqi confrontation, Israel’s freedom of manoeuvre to defend itself against attacks will be limited,” said Dore Gold, a senior Sharon adviser.

“How the Palestinians use this limitation is a matter of real concern to us,” he said.

US CALCULATIONS: US officials apparently calculated that if Israel did not heed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to the siege, they would have more trouble bringing big powers in the pivotal UN body and Arabs on board for action against Iraq.