LONDON Ñ Arab diplomatic sources said not one Arab leader has telephoned Arafat over the last five weeks since Israeli restrictions have trapped him in his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The sources said the apparent boycott involves heads of state including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah.

Palestinian diplomats, including the Palestinian envoy to the Arab League, Mohammed Sbeih, have confirmed the boycott on Arafat, Middle East Newsline reported. A London-based, Palestinian-owned daily quoted a PA official as saying that Mubarak has not been in direct contact with Arafat for one month.

"ArafatÕs fellow Arab leaders have decided to turn their backs on him and not take any step to lift the siege thrown around him personally and the Palestinian people behind him," Al Quds Al Arabi said in an editorial this week. "None of them has even taken the trouble to ring him, not even his friend, the Egyptian president."

Mubarak, Arab diplomatic sources said, was angered by the Palestinian attempt to smuggle a ship full of Iranian weapons through the Suez Canal, owned by Egypt. Israeli commandos captured the Karine-A freighter in the Red Sea on Jan. 3, a move said to have ended the latest attempt by Arafat to smuggle weapons via the Suez Canal.

The sources said the United States presented evidence to Cairo that PA officials bribed Egyptian customs officers to allow the Karine-A through the canal. Washington, the sources said, has also sent the evidence of Palestinian involvement to Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

"We continue to make very clear the responsibility that we believe chairman Arafat has with regard to the arms smuggling and with regard to the terrorist groups," U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Thursday.

The U.S. evidence has prompted doubts in Congress over approving a Bush administration request for the advanced Harpoon anti-ship missile to Egypt. The deal is worth $400 million and regarded as a priority in Egypt's military procurement program.

Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, the sources said, have refrained from launching heavy pressure on the United States for Arafat to leave Ramallah.

The result, they said, is that Arafat will be unable to fly to Rabat on Friday for the meeting of 15 Arab and Islamic foreign ministers to discuss the future of Jerusalem.

On Wednesday, Palestinian officials said Arafat sent PA Public Works Minister Azem Ahmad to Baghdad to deliver an appeal for help to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "The letter described the dangerous developments that the Palestinian lands have been witnessing," PA radio reported.

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