Nov. 28 - Some excerpts from an article in the Australian news Arafat's over 'billion-dollar stash':

Arafat is thought to have salted away between $US300 million and $US1.3 billion in bank accounts worldwide by allegedly plundering aid money sent to prop up the battered West Bank and Gaza economy.

Hoping to deflect mounting concern over PA corruption, Arafat appointed Salam Fayyad, a chain-smoking US-educated economist, to the post of finance minister last year.

Fayyad is winning rave reviews for his swift assault on the culture of corruption, revealing that Arafat had diverted about $US900 million from the crippled PA budget between 1995 and 2000 to a secret Arafat-controlled account managed by his loyal financial adviser, Mohammed Rachid.

An International Monetary Fund report in September, detailing PA financial mismanagement, was followed by more allegations in a US 60 Minutes TV report earlier this month. In an interview on that show, Fayyad said: "There is corruption out there, there is abuse, there's impropriety. That's what had to be fixed."

However, Fayyad can only dig where he's allowed to, according to Matthew Levitt, a former FBI analyst who tracks terrorism financing.

"Fayyad is really trying very hard in some cases to shame people into action," Levitt told The Weekend Australian. "However, (his) best efforts can only be successful as they pertain to the PA's funds. He has no jurisdiction over PLO funds, Fatah (Arafat's political party) funds or any funds that have been diverted to Yasser Arafat's (or his associates') personal accounts."

Arafat still pays the salaries of more security officers than he needs, including Palestinian naval police based in landlocked Hebron.

"The fact is Salam Fayyad does not have access to the vast majority of those funds," Levitt said. The renewed interest in Arafat's finances comes at a sensitive time for the Palestinians, who will present their 2004 budget at an international donors conference in Rome on December 12.

The West Bank war horse's image is not helped when publications such as Forbes magazine feature the 74-year-old prominently on its list of most wealthy "King, Queens and Despots".

Forbes calculates that Arafat, who comes in sixth behind Queen Elizabeth II, has a net worth of $US300billion. Some Israelis believe Arafat's personal wealth may be as much as $US11 billion, although in testimony to the Knesset last year Israel's chief of military intelligence Aharon Zeevi listed his personal assets at more than $US1.3 billion.

Washington's contribution to the PA this year is a relatively modest $US125 million, including $US20 million that, for the first time, was given directly to the PA instead of via contractors and non-government organisations. "I think we have made sure that US money is accounted for properly," Boucher said. According to Fayyad, Arafat was paying his security forces about $US20 million a month in cash.

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