Sharon Ready to End Arafat Blockade

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) said Sunday he is prepared to end Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s confinement in the West Bank and negotiate with the Palestinians on a truce — but with violence at its worst levels in 17 months of fighting, he stressed he will not call off the army offensive against militants.

Sharon said Palestinian security forces had arrested the fifth and final suspect in the October slaying of Israeli Cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi, fulfilling the condition for lifting a blockade that has kept Arafat under virtual house arrest in his compound in Ramallah in the West Bank since December.

"People have been arrested. I demanded their arrest and their imprisonment," Sharon told a group of disabled war veterans. "I have said that after they are arrested we shall let him out of there." He did not say when the Palestinian leader would be allowed to move about freely.