Qurie denies threat to quit over Arafat reform row

PALESTINIAN Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie denied he was thinking about resigning after a heated argument with President Yasser Arafat over his blocking of reforms.

A senior Palestinian official said earlier that Mr Qurie, who first threatened to quit late last year in a power-sharing dispute with Mr Arafat over the formation of a government, told cabinet ministers he was considering stepping down.

"Resigning? Why? I am here as the prime minister. I am not thinking about that," Mr Qurie said after a meeting with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in Berlin.