Yasser: I'm Immovable Mountain

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Saturday brushed off new Israeli threats, telling several thousand supporters that Israel will never get rid of him.

Arafat spoke a day after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he was no longer bound by an earlier promise to Washington not to harm the Palestinian leader.

Speaking in poetic Arabic to the cheering crowd, Arafat referred to himself as a "mountain."

"I tell Sharon and his gang, 'Oh mountain, the wind will never move you,"' he declared.

Behind the scenes, however, Arafat confidants said he was concerned about the latest threat.

In new violence, Israeli troops killed three militants in the West Bank town of Jenin, residents and witnesses said. The army said the men were preparing a suicide bombing inside Israel and were killed after they fired at soldiers who tried to arrest them. The men were members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group linked to Arafat's Fatah faction.

Sharon has accused Arafat of supporting Palestinian militants, who have killed more than 900 Israelis during 3-and-a-half years of fighting.

The prime minister's remarks in an Israeli television interview Friday were seen as his strongest threat against Arafat yet. Coming ahead of a May 2 vote among 200,000 members of the ruling Likud Party on Sharon's plan for "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians, the warning was seen as an attempt to boost support among the most hawkish party members.

Polls have indicated that Sharon's plan for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements has just a slight edge among Likud members. Defeat would be a serious blow to Sharon, and he would come under great pressure to step down.

In recent days, Sharon has backed away from a promise to honor the vote. He said that the referendum is only advisory and that he would present the plan to the Cabinet and parliament even if the party rejected it.

In the Channel Two television interview, Sharon said he told President Bush in a White House meeting last week that he was no longer bound by a promise three years ago not to harm Arafat.

"My obligation no longer exists," Sharon said. "I am freed of this obligation. I freed myself from this obligation regarding Arafat."

Sharon did not elaborate or say how Mr. Bush responded.

The White House said Mr. Bush had repeated his opposition to an attack on Arafat. "We have made it entirely clear to the Israeli government that we would oppose any such action," said National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack.

People close to Arafat said the Palestinian leader took the latest threat against him seriously and was prepared for the possibility that he might be killed.

Ahmed Tibi, an Israeli Arab legislator, quoted Arafat as saying: "I am not afraid of Sharon's threats. I take into account the possibility that I will die the death of a martyr, like many among the Palestinian people."

Israel has killed dozens of militants, including the leaders of the Islamic group Hamas, in targeted attacks. But under U.S. pressure, it has refrained from killing or expelling Arafat, confining him instead to his West Bank headquarters for two years.

In recent months, Israel has repeatedly threatened Arafat, but has taken no action. In September, Israel's Cabinet decided Arafat should be "removed" - an intentionally vague statement that could mean he would be expelled or killed. Last month, Israel's army chief, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, and Sharon suggested Arafat could be targeted.

Palestinian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were extremely concerned by the latest threats following Israel's assassinations of two Hamas leaders over the past month. The killings marked a dramatic escalation in Israel's campaign against the militant group.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Arafat, asked for U.S. intervention. "We call upon the U.S. administration to clarify its position on these statements and to bear its responsibility toward this escalation," he said.

Palestinian officials also said they had spoken to Secretary of State Colin Powell about Sharon's disengagement plan, which Mr. Bush endorsed last week.

The Palestinians fear Sharon will use the plan to hold on to large chunks of the West Bank, undermining their hopes of establishing an independent state in all of Gaza and the West Bank.

Earlier this week, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia sent a letter to Mr. Bush asking him to reconsider his support for the plan and his tacit recognition of some Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Powell called Qureia on Friday, saying the administration would study his letter and answer soon, aides to Qureia said.