Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei presented on July 17 a letter of resignation to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, well-informed official Palestinian sources

said, adding that Arafat rejected his resignation.

The official close to Qurei said that the prime minister said that he had presented a letter of resignation to Arafat while chairing the weekly meeting of the Palestinian National Authority(PNA) cabinet in Ramallah.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that Qurei's resignation was a protest to the current status of anarchy, corruption and deterioration of security in the Palestinian territories.

Three kidnapping incidents took place in the Gaza Strip on Friday, in which militants kidnapped the police chief Ghazi elJabal, a Palestinian Colonel in charge of the Liaison and four French citizens.

All hostages were released later, but the kidnappers, who are militant members of Fatah movement chaired by Arafat, were calling for ending corruption and taking to court all the PNA corrupted officials.

Earlier Saturday, Palestinian sources reported that Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Rawhi Fatouh offered a letter of resignation to Arafat to protest the current deteriorating situation in the territories.

However, as soon as the reports said that Fatouh resigned, he denied that he presented a resignation to Arafat.Earlier Saturday, the PNA declared a state of emergency in the strip following the kidnapping incidents, and Arafat chaired an urgent meeting of the Palestinian highest council of national security.

Arafat has refused to accept any of the resignations presented to him either by two top security chiefs in Gaza, or by Fatouh if he really presented a resignation, or by Qurei.

Source: Xinhua