RAMALLAH, West Bank, July 17 (AFP) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat rejected the resignation of his prime minister Ahmed Qorei Saturday as he cut a swathe through his security services after a spate of kidnappings, sources said.
"Qorei submitted his resignation but Arafat told him to withdraw it when he announced his revamp of the security services," a deputy in the Palestinian parliament who is close to Qorei told AFP.
Arafat's top aide had earlier revealed that the veteran leader had agreed to cut the eight separate security services to three after the string of abductions in the Gaza Strip.
"President Arafat has decided with immediate effect to cut the security services to three -- police, general security and the intelligence service," Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
Arafat's own nephew, Musa, has taken over general security from General Abdel Razzek al-Majeida.
General Saed Elajez had already announced his appointment as police chief in place of General Ghazi Jabali, who was abducted for four hours Friday by dissident militants accusing him of corruption.
General Amin al-Hindi, who had swiftly offered his resignation over the abductions that also saw four French aid workers and a Palestinian liaison officer briefly held hostage, will remain at the head of the intelligence services.
Arafat has long faced pressure from the international community to streamline the Palestinians' myriad security services, which have been accused of corruption and connivance with anti-Israeli militants.
The abductions had highlighted questions about the Palestinians' ability to maintain security in the territories just as pressure was growing on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to advance his planned pullout from the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian liaison officer Colonel Khaled Abu al-Ula was the last of the six hostages to be freed. After a night in the hands of mutinous subordinates angry at their threatened dismissal, the colonel was freed Saturday morning saying he had been well treated during his captivity.
The four French aid workers, who had been seized by some 20 gunmen from a cafe in the Khan Yunis refugee camp where they were repairing power and water supplies, were freed in two stages during the night.
One of two women who were the first to be released said she had been "held for around an hour and a half by masked men who pushed us roughly towards their cars but otherwise did us no harm".
The kidnappers were "clearly embarrassed to discover we were French people who came here out of solidarity with the Palestinians and assured us we ran no risk," said Martine Buffard.
The Palestinian police chief was the first to be released, emerging from the Breij refugee camp after four hours in the hands of dissident militants.
Palestinian officials made little secret of their embarrassment over the crisis, which came just days after UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen launched an outspoken attack on Arafat's failure to get to grips with security in the territories.
"The situation is critical and the government is going to have to prove it is capable of taking action," minister without portfolio Qadura Fares told AFP.
Israel seized on the discomfiture of the Palestinians as it faced its own difficulties at the United Nations with the General Assembly opening a debate on the world court's advisory ruling that its West Bank barrier is "illegal".
A senior official cited by public radio said the abductions again showed that "there is no Palestinian interlocutor for Israel to negotiate with," for a comprehensive settlement or even for short-term security measures.
"That only reinforces our determination to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip," as planned by Sharon by late next year, the official said.
The premier is facing demands from the opposition Labour party to speed up the pullout as its price for joining a new broad-based coalition government.
The crisis marred what should have been an opportunity for the Palestinians to score a rare public relations victory over Israel.
Palestinian representative Nasser al-Kidwa told the General Assembly that Israel would become an "outlaw state" if it failed to heed the ruling by the International Court of Justice.
But Israeli ambassador Dan Gillerman lambasted his remarks, saying that it was hypocritical for Arab dictatorships to criticise Israel over its adherence to the rule of law.
The Israeli premier has already said he will ignore the non-binding ruling by the UN's highest tribunal.