U.S. Ties Future Palestinian Aid to Terror Fight

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli tanks and troops returned to two West Bank villages Wednesday in a hunt for Palestinian suspects, and an angry Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) warned that his confinement by Israel was damaging Middle East stability.

Israeli military operations showed few signs of easing, and the Palestinian leader complained to Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) that rather than withdraw as Washington had demanded, Israel was reoccupying towns it had previously left.

"This means that they are continuing their aggression against the Palestinian people," Arafat told reporters in a darkened hallway of his headquarters after Powell had left.

He appealed for international pressure on Israel to end his own imprisonment in his Ramallah office. "Is this acceptable that I cannot go out the door?" said Arafat, who did not escort Powell to his car at the end of their meeting.