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Sharon, Bush agreed on getting rid of Arafat after Saddam - report

"Sharon and Bush agreed that immediately after the removal of (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein, it would be Arafat's turn," said the best-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper, without identifying its sources.

JERUSALEM (AFX) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and US President George W. Bush have agreed on a plan to get rid of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat if he refuses to appoint a prime minister with executive powers, an Israeli daily said Sunday.

"Sharon and Bush agreed that immediately after the removal of (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein, it would be Arafat's turn," said the best-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper, without identifying its sources.

"It was agreed that Israel could banish Yasser Arafat and his associates from the (occupied) territories if he refuses to appoint a prime minister endowed with the power to run the self-rule authority" set up in 1994, the daily said.

It quoted a senior Israeli official it did not identify as saying: "We are going to throw him out, with a green light from the United States ... In the eyes of the White House, Arafat is no different to Saddam Hussein. The one's as repugnant as the other."

The official said the agreement between Bush and Sharon was made after a series of secret meetings which Sharon and his chief of staff Dov Weisglass had held in recent weeks with various senior Palestinian officials.

Sharon's office said it had no immediate response to the report.

But the daily Maariv also said Sunday that "among political and security figures, there is no need to convince anyone of the need of getting rid of Arafat."

It said Weisglass was expected to discuss the issue in Amman Sunday with Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher.

It would also be raised in talks Sharon is scheduled to hold with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after the Israeli leader has finished building his new coalition.