Arafat rejects US charges of graft, ridicules Israeli fence

She told the newspaper, ‘‘the Palestinian Authority, which is corrupt and cavorts with terror…is not the basis for a Palestinian state moving forward’’.

Rice’s comments reflected Arafat’s deteriorating relationship with the US, which has criticised him repeatedly as it seek reforms of the Palestinian Authority and as President George W. Bush works on a West Asia peace plan.

Less than 24 hours after Sunday’s inauguration of the year-long fence project, a suicide bomber killed only himself when he triggered a blast near a border police unit on Israel’s side of the frontier North of the Palestinian city of Tulkarm.

‘‘A border patrol unit saw a suspicious person and they called to him to stop. There was an explosion, he was apparently a suicide bomber,’’ a border police spokeswoman said giving no details. There were no Israeli casualties.

Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the man who blew himself up on Monday was one of five would-be suicide bombers being sought by security forces on the basis of intelligence reports.

‘‘A year ago there weren’t two suicide bombers every day,’’ Ben-Eliezer said. ‘‘Our problem today is how to stop this wave of suicide bombers.’’ He said the security fence was intended to halt such attacks and was not being built for political reasons.

Palestinians fear Israel will seize West Bank land as it marks out the $220 million barrier after 20 months of conflict, and that it will stop Palestinians from entering Israel, where thousands work illegally after eluding Israeli roadblocks.

Arafat has responded to growing US and Israeli pressure for reforms by announcing legislative and presidential elections in December or January.