The government today denounced Israel's threat to expel Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and called on world powers to prevent it from being carried out.

"Such a move will not possibly help to attain peace because Israel appears to be increasingly arrogant in its actions," Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said.

Malaysia hoped the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union would convene a meeting to stop Israel from proceeding with the move, the official Bernama news agency reported.

"We will be getting together, or writing a letter to the United Nations to see that stronger action is taken in order to prevent continuous acts of violence and deterrence of the peace process," Syed Hamid was quoted as saying.

Absolute obstacle

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who has headed this mainly-Muslim Southeast Asian nation for the past 22 years, is a strong supporter of the Palestinians and the country has no diplomatic relations with Israel.

Israel's security cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, gave its approval in principle to Arafat's forcible expulsion, blaming him for being an "absolute obstacle to all attempts at reconciliation," but did not set a date for any action.

The move followed the killing of 15 Israelis in two suicide bombings carried out by Hamas militants within five hours of each other near Tel Aviv and in Jerusalem on Tuesday. - AFP