Israel rejects offer of truce from Arafat and demands crackdown

ISRAEL yesterday rejected a truce from Yasser Arafat and instead demanded the Palestinian Authority crack down on militant groups.

Mr Arafat himself struck a conciliatory tone, but stopped short of making a specific ceasefire offer. "We say to the peace supporters in Israel that we extend our hand to you to revive peace", Arafat said in a speech to about 2,500 Palestinians at his battered West Bank headquarters.

In the West Bank town of Dura, meanwhile, Israeli troops killed an Islamic militant in an arrest raid, witnesses and military officials said.