Palestinian President Yasser Arafat says he is unmoved by a threat by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to assassinate him which has drawn criticism from the United States.

Arafat was speaking to reporters yesterday at his battered headquarters in Ramallah hours after a

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Palestinian gunman infiltrated a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, killing a settler and wounding his 12-year-old daughter before soldiers shot the attacker dead.

In interviews with Israeli newspapers on Friday, Sharon had issued his most explicit threat yet against Arafat, calling the Palestinian leader a poor insurance risk.

"I don't care for it. I am caring for my people, for our children, for our women, for our students," Arafat, speaking in English, said in his first response to Sharon's remarks.

The United States criticised Sharon's comments, but Israel's Internal Security Minister Tsahi Hanegbi defended the prime minister's remarks yesterday and noted that US forces had killed militants in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sharon, who is under fire in Israel over his plan for a unilateral Gaza pullout and over a bribery scandal, singled out Arafat and Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrilla group, in his media interviews.

"I wouldn't suggest either one of them should feel secure. I wouldn't propose that any insurance company give them coverage," Sharon told Israel's Haaretz daily.

"Anyone who kills a Jew or harms an Israeli citizen, or sends someone to kill Jews, is a marked man. Period."

Israel accuses Arafat of fomenting violence, an allegation he denies.

Responding to Sharon's comments, Deputy US Secretary of State Richard Armitage told reporters in Washington:

"Our position on such questions -- the exile or assassination of Yasser Arafat -- is very well known. We are opposed and we have made that

very clear to the government of Israel."

Hanegbi strongly rebuffed Washington's criticism, telling Israel Radio "it seems to me that it should be the last one that can preach to us about how to implement our right to self-defence."