The United States expressed "serious concern" Wednesday about reported alliances between the Palestinian Authority and militant groups opposed to the Middle East peace process, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
"It's an issue of serious concern, and we will continue to monitor it through our embassy and our consulate there," said State Department spokesman Philip Reeker, responding to reports in the Washington Post Wednesday.
"The Palestinian Authority has obligations to carry out its commitments, particularly the fight against terrorism, and to apprehend, to prosecute and to bring to justice those involved in terrorist acts," he added.
"There can be no excuse or justification for any other course of action other than carrying out those commitments ... There's a need to see that the people interested in violence are off the streets."
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that PLO President Yasser Arafat has formed "a working alliance" with Palestinian radicals he had previously put in jail.
Dozens of members of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Islamic Jihad have been freed in the last three weeks to help coordinate the Palestinian violence, or resistance to the Israeli presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Post reported.
But US President Bill Clinton said Wednesday that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was in a position to "dramatically" reduce violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
More than 130 people have died in nearly four weeks of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians which has continued despite a ceasefire agreed at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, last week.
"I think that, you know, there are probably some people within the Palestinian territories, and probably some people within Israel, that are not within total control of Chairman Arafat or even the Israeli government," Clinton said at the White House.
"But I do think Chairman Arafat can dramatically reduce the level of violence."
On Tuesday the White House said Clinton had proposed that Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak come to Washington to meet separately with him. Clinton confirmed that he had spoken by phone both to Arafat and Barak on Tuesday.
But Hamas issued a warning Wednesday against a new meeting with Clinton.
"We warn (Arafat) against going to such a meeting that our people view as a new plot to block the Intifada," Hamas said in a statement received in Damascus – WASHINGON (AFP)
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