WASHINGTON Ñ The United States has refused to deem the Palestinian Authority a terrorist entity despite acknowledging that PA documents captured by Israeli forces that detail the financing of insurgency attacks against Israel are genuine.

The State Department did not add the PA or the ruling Fatah party to the list of entities deemed as terrorist.

Officials said the department was still studying the Palestinian documents relayed by Israel that were said to have linked the PA to suicide bombings. They include PA expenditure orders Ñ which contain Arafat's signature Ñ for insurgency squads, Middle East Newsline reported..

The report has deemed the Fatah-controlled Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade a terrorist group. It said Fatah Tanzim militia members were also involved in attacks against Israel.

"We've made it very clear that there are members of Tanzim that are also members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade," State Department counter-terrorism coordinator Francis Taylor said on Tuesday during the release of the report.

"That's not a secret. What we have not been able to determine or to make a final judgment on how far up and who in the PA may be or could be or had been directing this activity. We have not found that linkage."

Taylor said the State Department is studying PA documents supplied by Israel that are said to link chairman Yasser Arafat to insurgency attacks on the Jewish state. The official said he is certain that the documents are authentic.

"We don't have any question about the authenticity of the documents provided by the Israeli government," Taylor said. "We are continuing to study those documents and to draw our own conclusions about what they mean. We've not completed that."

The State Department said PA Chairman Yasser Arafat was fighting terrorism. The report also blamed Israel for the ineptitude of Palestinian security forces.

"IsraelÕs destruction of the PA's security infrastructure contributed to the ineffectiveness of the PA," the report said. "Significantly reduced Israeli-PA security cooperation and a lax security environment allowed Hamas and other groups to rebuild terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinian territories."

The report termed Iran as the most active terrorist sponsor and said it was active in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Teheran is said to be supporting a range of Palestinian and Lebanese groups with training and weapons.

"Iran continued to provide Lebanese Hizbullah and the Palestinian rejectionist groups notably Hamas, the Palestine Islamic Jihad, and even the PFLP-GC with varying amounts of funding, safe haven, training, and weapons," the report said. "It also encouraged Hizbullah and the rejectionist Palestinian groups to coordinate their planning and to escalate their activities."

The report also said Jews were terrorizing Palestinians in the West Bank. The State Department compared the Jewish gangs to those of Palestinian suicide bombers.

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