HIGHLIGHTS: Arafat Seeking to Reaffirm His Leadership||Likud Vote Arouses Arab Condemnation & International Concern||Vote Won't Affect Sharon's Actions, Say Israeli AnalystsSTORY: Yasser Arafat toured West Bank cities for the first time in five months Monday and reassured Palestinians they would win their own state, brushing aside a vow from Ariel Sharon's Likud party never to allow it. (Read photo caption)

The Palestinian president visited Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, site of a five-week Israeli siege, Jenin -- scene of devastation during a recent Israeli offensive -- and Nablus, seeking to reaffirm his leadership of the Palestinians.

"To Jerusalem we are headed. Jerusalem is the capital of our independent state of Palestine, never mind who agrees or does not," a defiant Arafat told a crowd in Nablus in the northern West Bank.

ARAB CONDEMNATION AND INTERNATIONAL CONCERN

The trip began shortly after the central committee of the right-wing Likud party voted never to accept a Palestinian state, drawing Arab condemnation and world concern.

Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said the Likud vote showed Israel's true intentions and would increase Palestinians' frustration in their 19-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation.

European officials also said it would harm the search for peace and the United States, Israel's strongest ally, reiterated that it supported an eventual Palestinian state.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in Brussels he regretted the Likud decision.

"Everybody has recognized that the only way to peace is through a (Palestinian) state. It is a pity that internal politics can make this process more difficult," Solana said.

INTERNAL POLITICS

However, Israeli political analysts said the decision by a Likud party forum that Netanyahu packed with supporters during his 1996-1999 tenure as prime minister would have little or no effect on Sharon's actions.

Sharon has spoken of the creation of a Palestinian state at the end of a long peacemaking process. He has since said it is premature to talk of a state and has called for major reform of Arafat's Palestinian Authority as a precondition for negotiations.

PHOTO CAPTION

Mr Arafat had planned to see the battle-scarred refugee camp in Jenin but his security officials decided against it as crowds swelled around the podium erected for him inside. The BBC's Malcolm Brabant - reporting from the camp - said chaos and pandemonium reigned, with people jam-packed around the podium. But Mr Arafat flew over the camp in a helicopter, rather than entering it.