Mr Yasser Arafat insisted today he would not be shunted aside by a Palestinian political shakeup and said his old nemesis, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was not ready to pay the price for peace.
On the eve of a landmark session of the Palestinian parliament to confirm incoming Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and his cabinet, the Palestinian president told the Israeli newspaper Maariv he had no intention of fading away.
"I am the elected president of the Palestinian people...the whole world knows this," Arafat was quoted as saying in his battered West Bank compound. "I plan to welcome the many leaders who will come here to Ramallah to meet me in the coming weeks."
Mr Arafat has recently received a trickle of visits by European diplomats, and despite Israeli objections, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi plans to meet him tomorrow.
But the United States has followed Israel's lead and shunned Arafat, accusing him of not doing enough to rein in Palestinian militants -- an allegation he denies.
Keeping up the pressure, Israeli forces backed by helicopter gunships raided the Jenin refugee camp, where witnesses said troops shot dead an unarmed 16-year-old boy. The army said it killed a gunman while arresting a "senior terrorist".