The Israeli cabinet's demands yesterday followed a rash of violence in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, including the murder of a Palestinian by a suspected Jewish extremist, and mutual accusations by Israeli and Palestinian leaders of violations of October's Wye River land-for-security accord.

The new demands were swiftly rejected by the Palestinians who accused Israel of seeking ways to shirk its responsibilities under Wye River and create a crisis just 10 days ahead of a visit by the US president to the region.

Israel is demanding that the Palestinians renounce plans to declare an independent state, that they no longer call for the release of prisoners ``with blood on their hands'' or members of Hamas, and that they halt all ``incitements to violence.''

``If the Palestinians do not accept all these conditions, Israel will not go aheadwith the scheduled withdrawals,'' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's spokesman Aviv Bushinsky told AFP after a meeting of the security cabinet.

Israel last month completed the first of three withdrawal outlined under the Wye River accord which will ultimately leave the Palestinians with full or partial control of 40 per cent of the West Bank from 27 per cent now. The next two phases are due to take place in two months.

Israeli newspapers said today that the Israeli government had yesterday released a long list of statements made by Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat which it felt violated the accords by threatening or inciting violence or announcing his intention to unilaterally declare an independent state.

Netanyahu is also understood to have sent a letter to Clinton, citing violations of the Wye accord by the Palestinians and calling for US pressure on them to stop such acts.

Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon is due to visit Washington next week for talks with US Secretary of StateMadeleine Albright and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, among others.

Under the Wye agreement, Israeli troops are to pull out in three phases from an additional 13 per cent of the West Bank. When completed, the arrangement will give Palestinians full or partial control over 40 per cent of the territory.

The first withdrawal was carried out last month and the next two phases are scheduled within the next eight weeks.

Arafat has repeatedly said that he would declare an independent state after May 4, 1999, at the end of the five-year interim period prescribed by the Oslo interim peace accords. Netanyahu has warned that Israel would respond to such a proclamation by annexing areas of the West Bank and Gaza strip still under its control.