Palestinians 'arrest assassination chief'

Palestinian security forces today said they had detained the leader of a Palestinian group responsible for the assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister.

The detention of Ahmed Saadat, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, appears to be aimed at calming tensions after the PFLP claimed responsibility for the October assassination of Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi. Israel had said it would not lift its travel restrictions on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat - confined to Ramallah - until Saadat was detained.

But Israeli officials today said they wanted proof that Saadat was being held and demanded that the Palestinian Authority turn over Mr Zeevi's assassins. "I'm not sure that he's been arrested," said Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon. "He and the other members who perpetrated the act, they have to be put in jail and interrogated. After that they have to be extradited. I suggest we wait and see that all of them have been arrested before action can be taken on our side."

The announcement that Saadat had been detained came hours after gunmen killed a 72-year-old Israeli-American as he drove in the West Bank and a 45-year-old Israeli settler on her way to a wedding north of Jerusalem.