The European Union said today it "deplored and rejected" statements by Israeli Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon in which he expressed regret for not killing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat 20 years ago.
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Mr Sharon said in comments published today Israel should have eliminated Mr Arafat in 1982.
"In Lebanon it was agreed that Arafat would not be eliminated. To tell the truth, I'm sorry we didn't eliminate him," the right-wing Mr Sharon told the Israeli newspaper Maariv.
As defence minister, Mr Sharon oversaw the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. After being besieged by Israeli forces in Beirut, Mr Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) leadership decamped to Tunis.
Mr Sharon, who won power in 2001, attacked previous Israeli governments that normalised ties with the PLO in contacts that led to the signing of interim peace agreements in 1993 and the formation of the Palestinian Authority under Mr Arafat. Once in office, Mr Sharon refused to meet Mr Arafat, sending his son Omri instead.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Mr Saeb Erekat, responding to Mr Sharon's remarks on eliminating Mr Arafat, told Reuters: "I think this reflects what has been always said - that Sharon is trying to finish what he began in 1982, and for prime ministers to announce openly their gangster intention is a reflection of what kind of government we're dealing with".
But Mr Sharon's spokesman, Mr Raanan Gissin, said Israel was not seeking to eliminate Mr Arafat. "Today Israel's policy is not to harm him personally. He [Sharon] has even sent his son to Arafat personally to tell him we would not harm or hurt him," Mr Gissin said.
Mr Sharon's coalition government wants Mr Arafat to crack down on Palestinian militants who reject peace with Israel, and ensure a seven-day quiet period as a condition for a resumption of US-brokered truce-to-talks agreements.
"If Arafat takes all the steps we demand of him, as far as I'm concerned he'll go back to being a peace partner," Mr Sharon told Maariv.
But the prime minister's vision of a final accord still fell far short of the Palestinian demand for statehood on the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem - lands captured in the 1967 Israeli-Arab war.
"At the end of the day, an independent Palestinian state will be created, which will be demilitarised, with a police force only, for keeping public order. For the sake of true peace, I am willing to give up parts of the Land of Israel," Mr Sharon told Maariv.