JERUSALEM Ñ Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi was assassinated early Tuesday morning outside his hotel room in Jerusalem. He was shot three times in the head and neck.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine took responsibility for the assassination. A PFLP statement said the attack on Zeevi was to avenge the killing of PFLP leader Ali Abu Mustapha last month. Mustapha was killed when Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles into his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The statement also said that the ultra right-wing minister was targeted because he was part of the Israeli cabinet that ordered the liquidation of Mustapha.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened the security cabinet shortly after the attack. The cabinet decided to implement more aggressive security measures in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including reimposing the closure on Ramallah, halting all negotiations with the Palestinians until the terror attacks against Israel end and tightening the restrictions that were lifted earlier.

"This murder begins a new era," Israeli Prime Minister Sharon said. "The situation is different just like [U.S.] President Bush said after the attacks in the United States. We want peace with the Palestinian people but we will not compromise."

Sharon blamed Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat for the attack. Israeli security sources said that a single or several Palestinian assailants fled into east Jerusalem after the shooting and there were no eye witnesses. Israel is the demanding that the PA capture and extradite the attackers.

"If Yasser Arafat does not take the situation into hand, everything will go up in flames," Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said earlier.

One or more assailants fled after the shooting and there were no eye witnesses. Israel demands the extradition of the assailant or assailants to Israel.

On Tuesday, Sharon said Israel would agree to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state if Israel's security was guaranteed. But he denied the report in the London-based Foreign Report that said he would be willing to dismantle all the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Sharon said that in a peace agreement with the Palestinians, Israel would not compromise on a united Jersualem with the Temple Mount, most Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would be left in place and Israel would not agree to the influx of Palestinian refugees. Sharon also said he would personally lead any future negotiations with the Palestinians.

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