"I am prepared to implement the law (against militants) on condition Israel stops its attacks," Arafat said in an interview with Reuters, without elaborating on steps he would take.

But he said he would not risk a Palestinian civil war, referring to fears cited by reformist Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas in his hesitation to crack down on militants before Israel halts raids and pulls back forces from occupied territory.

Arafat, whom the United States has frozen out of fresh peacemaking over allegations which he denies of inciting violence, spoke after Israel botched a missile strike on Hamas gunmen in Gaza on Tuesday night and killed a bystander instead.

He said he had embraced the US-backed "road map" and urged Washington to salvage the peace plan by pressing Israel to cease fire and by sending forces to oversee implementation of confidence-building steps required of each side.

"Otherwise, certainly there is a danger of an explosion that would threaten the entire region," the 74-year-old leader said.

He said he had ordered the arrests of Hamas and other militant leaders earlier in a 35-month-old uprising for independence and that he would do so again, but not if it risked a popular backlash while Israel kept up attacks.

"Haven't I arrested Hamas leaders (before)? Haven't I placed some of them under house arrest? I'm not prepared to fuel a Palestinian civil war. But I am prepared to implement the law on condition Israel halts attacks," he said at his half-destroyed compound where Israeli forces have confined him for 18 months.

Islamist militant factions renounced a cease-fire last week and prominent figures went into hiding after Israel assassinated a top Hamas political leader with helicopter missiles after a suicide bomber killed 21 people in Jerusalem.

Arafat accused Israel of ruining the cease-fire and provoking retaliation by militants by continuing to hunt down their leaders and activists after the truce took effect on June 29.

"Isn't the road map binding on Israel too?" he said, picking up a copy of the document from his table and reading out parts outlining reciprocal commitments in the first phase.

"We were in control many times including our success in reaching a cease-fire but it was violated many times in a persistent and rude manner by most Israeli political and military leaders," he said.

He said Israel had killed at least 19 Palestinians since the truce was declared and wounded scores more during the cease-fire.

"Israel is responsible for the failure of the truce. Israel has not respected the truce and is not committed to peace although we were and are still committed to peace. We have implemented our side of the road map so far but Israel hasn't."

"If the United States wants to preside over these forces, so be it, but this has to be done to stop the deterioration."

He said the Palestinian Authority was working along with Egypt and Saudi Arabia to revive the militants' truce.

The Israeli army arrested 32 wanted militants in a series of overnight operations in the West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli sources said yesterday.

Five members of the radical Hamas movement were detained in an operation in Nablus in which an Islamic Jihad activist was also nabbed, an Israeli military source told AFP.

Another Hamas operative was arrested in the village of Madama, to the south of Nablus, on suspicion of organising an imminent anti-Israeli attack.

"He was organising a particular attack that we had intelligence on. He was regarded as a ticking bomb," said the army source.

Six people were arrested in the town of Jenin, according to Palestinian and Israeli sources. Another seven were detained in the town of Tulkarem after Israeli troops in tanks and jeeps entered the town in the early morning, witnesses said.

"Seven wanted Palestinians were arrested in the IDF (Israeli defence force) operation in Tulkarem. They have been taken for further questining," the Israeli source said.

No one was believed to have been injured in any of the arrest operations although the Israelis said they had come under fire while arresting on wanted militant in the town of Qalqilya.