DAVOS. Switzerland. Feb I: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Sunday that the May target for a declaration of statehood was a "sacred date." since it was agreed under an international accord, reports AFP.

He was speaking at the start of a five-day trip to Europe and the United States to try to protect the option of declaring an independent state in May despite Israeli elections that month.

"It Is a sacred date, it is not a Palestinian date, it is an international elate,1 he told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.

"You remember it has been agreed upon and signed by Russia. the United States, the' European Union. Norway, Jordan, Egypt, in the presence of the Japanese foreign minister and the representative of Kofi Annan," he said.

"So it is not a bilateral agreement, it is an international agreement."

Arafat’s trip is seen by analysts as part of a continuing campaign to drum up support for the possible announcement of a Palestinian state on May 4 when the Interim period, as set out in the Oslo peace accords, comes to an end.

Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet has insisted Arafat's Palestinian Authority renounce its intention to unilaterally declare an independent state in May, in particular because Israeli elections are to be held later that month.

Arafat was speaking shortly before meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the sidelines of the WEF meeting.

Mubarak told AFP before their talks at a Davos hotel, I hope that they could delay it (the proclamation of a state! lor some time." as this could help avoid “other extremists creating problems."

UN Secretary General Roll Annan also met here with Mubarak and later had a halfhour meeting with Arafat, but none of the leaders had any comment to make on their talks.