RAMALLAH, West Bank, July 17 (AFP) - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat rejected an offer by his prime minister Ahmed Qorei to quit Saturday as he cut a swathe through his myriad security services after an unprecedented kidnapping spree.
Qorei confirmed after an emergency cabinet meeting that he had submitted his resignation, describing the security situation as a "mess" which had reached "crisis" point.
"We discussed the resignation that I gave to President Arafat earlier today and the general security issues," Qorei said in brief comments to reporters.
The premier declined to comment on Arafat's response but minister without portfolio Qadura Fares said the resignation had not been accepted.
"Our information is that President Arafat has not accepted it," Fares said.
However local government minister Jamal Shubaki said that he believed Qorei was determined to push through his resignation.
"I think that he will stick to his decision and resign," Shubaki told AFP.
Qorei submitted his resignation in a morning meeting at Arafat's Muqataa headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah after a spate of kidnappings in the Gaza Strip which had underlined an escalating security crisis.
But sources said that Arafat had refused to accept the resignation and sought to defuse the crisis by cutting the eight separate security services to three after a total of six kidnappings in Gaza on Friday.
"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.
The three new heads of the security apparatus are all close to Arafat, and some observers said they would do little to soothe tensions within Palestinian ranks.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Arafat's Fatah movement, rejected Musa Arafat's appointment, saying it would open the doors to "internal conflict" and calling him a symbol of corruption.
Some 3,000 people also staged a nighttime protest in Gaza City against the appointment, while hundreds more gathered in the southern town of Khan Yunis for a similar demonstration.
Qorei's predecessor Mahmud Abbas resigned last September after losing out to Arafat in a battle for control of the security services.
Under the terms of the US-backed roadmap peace plan, the Palestinians are obliged to crack down on armed factions, but gunmen are increasingly ruling the roost in the territories, especially in Gaza.
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.
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 United Nations' highest tribunal.