Yasser Arafat is a legitimate target for assassination despite a three-year-old promise to the United States not to harm the Palestinian leader, said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

At the start of the weeklong Jewish holiday Passover, Sharon gave wide-ranging interviews to the daily newspapers Yediot Ahronot, Maariv and Haaretz, and to Israel Radio and Israel Army Radio.

In those interviews, Sharon said Arafat and Hassan Nasrallah, who leads the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, could both be in the army's sights.

Yasser Arafat

"Whoever aims to kill Jews, whoever sends murderers to kill Jews, is marked for death," Sharon said.

Sharon said circumstances have changed since he promised U.S. President George W. Bush three years ago that Israel wouldn't harm Arafat.

"Today it is clear to the United States and to everyone just who Arafat is," Sharon said.

Two weeks ago, Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin was killed in Gaza City by rockets fired from an Israeli army helicopter.

Sharon also discussed his plan to withdraw from Gaza and unilaterally disengage from the Palestinians – a plan he called a "deadly blow" to the Palestinians.

"In the unilateral plan, there is no Palestinian state. This situation could continue for many years," Sharon said.

The withdrawal plan would include sealing off Gaza to keep the Palestinians from operating ports and keeping control of the border with Egypt, Sharon said.

Those comments were aimed at his hardline Israeli critics, who say withdrawal from the occupied territories would be a victory for terrorism.

The U.S.-backed road map to peace plan envisions a Palestinian state by 2005. The Palestinians say they would welcome an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, but only in co-ordination with them and as a first step.

"[Sharon] has to remember that he has to withdraw also ... from the West Bank," Arafat said on Monday.

Sharon hopes to get Washington's support for his disengagement proposal in a trip to the U.S. capital later this month.