Tenet, Arafat discuss unified security force

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is expected to repeat the demands when he meets US President George W. Bush at the White House next week, a month after a previous visit was cut short by a suicide bombing near Tel Aviv that killed 15 Israelis.

Tenet, who met Sharon on Monday, is on a mission that Bush said was aimed at building a united Palestinian force ‘‘that will fight terror.’’ The Palestinian Authority has nine separate and sometimes rival security services. ‘‘It’s a free-for-all. It’s dangerous,’’ Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said in Tel Aviv. ‘‘We hope that Tenet will help them to build a structure which will contain a central authority over all arms. Arafat won’t do it willingly but I think circumstances will force him.’’

Palestinian officials have said Israel’s five-week West Bank offensive from late March to early May and the daily rolling raids into Palestinian cities that have followed made it impossible for the security services to function. In the latest incursion, Israeli tanks and troops briefly raided the West Bank town of Jenin before Arafat and Tenet began their meeting in Ramallah.

Military sources said the Army had received reports of the whereabouts of wanted militants but the reports proved wrong and soldiers left after an hour.

The raids have followed a resurgence of Palestinian suicide bombings in a 20-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation. Israel says the raids have been to seek out militants blamed for the suicide bombings. (Reuters)