Arafat: Israel will prevent election

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has accused Israel of trying to prevent Palestinian elections next year which he is expected to win.

In a speech read for him at an Organisation of African Unity summit in South Africa, Mr Arafat said:

"The Israeli occupation aims at depriving our Palestinian people from exercising their right to local, parliamentary and presidential elections which we have declared.

"The Israeli occupation will try not to enable us to carry out these elections on the set dates, as well as to obstruct our plans and impede our efforts to reform and to reconstruct and rebuild our homeland and institutions destroyed by the barbaric and bloody Israeli war machine."

Arafat is widely expected to be re-elected in polls set for January 2003.

The speech was read for Arafat, a regular at OAU summits over the years, by Palestine Liberation Organisation foreign minister Farouq al-Kaddoumi.

Arafat was unable to attend as his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah has been beseiged by Israeli tanks since a pair of suicide bombings killed 26 Israelis last month.

Arafat's authority has been shaken by U.S. calls for his removal after 21 months of Middle East conflict, Israel's recent reoccupation of seven West Bank cities and dissent over his decision to demote a Palestinian Authority security chief.

Pressure has been mounting on Arafat since U.S. President George W. Bush called for his removal in a speech on June 24 as a condition for reviving peacemaking.

At least 1,436 Palestinians and 548 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began in September 2000 after peace talks froze.