Bush won't visit Yasser Arafat's tomb

Palestinian Authority officials on Monday expressed deep disappointment after learning that US President George W. Bush, who is expected to visit Ramallah soon, does not intend to lay a wreath at Yasser Arafat's tomb.

Bush, who is also expected to visit Jericho and Bethlehem, does not even plan to pass near the tomb.

On the eve of Bush's visit, the PA announced that its security forces in the West Bank had thwarted a suicide bombing in Israel.

PA Information Minister Riad al-Malki said a Hamas would-be suicide bomber was arrested shortly before he was due to set out on his mission. The PA security forces also seized a videotape featuring the would-be bomber that was supposed to have been released after the attack, he said.

Malki reiterated claims that last Friday's shooting attack in the Hebron Hills, in which two Israelis were killed, was "criminally motivated." He said the PA security forces had arrested the perpetrators and seized the rifles they took from their victims, two off-duty soldiers.

"A group of young men carried out the attack in order to take the weapons of the two settlers," Malki said. "Our forces pursued them, arrested them and returned the weapons to the Israelis." JPOST