Ramallah (West Bank): Yasser Arafat again faced major strains within his powerful security forces on July 8 over whether or not he sacked a top intelligence chief as part of pledged reforms.

The new twist came as a press report said the Israeli Army's general staff considered the Palestinian leader's days at the top to be limited.

Two senior Palestinian officials close to Arafat said he had signed a decree dismissing West Bank intelligence chief Tawfiq Tirawi, whom Israel accuses of masterminding "terror" attacks.

However, the news was immediately challenged by Amin al-Hindi, the intelligence chief for all the Palestinian territories, who vehemently denied it and denounced the information as a pack of lies.

"This is completely false. Tirawi is still head of Palestinian intelligence in the West Bank," Hindi said in a statement, responding to the news leaked by two senior Palestinian officials close to Arafat.

"This information is part of a propaganda campaign."

Tirawi himself also slammed the report as "incorrect news that is completely untrue".

Top Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeina likewise denied the reports as "totally untrue".

The dispute resembled last week's head-on collision between Arafat and his former West Bank preventive security chief Jibril Rajoub, who was officially replaced on July 4 after denying he had been dismissed.

Arafat also sacked last week his police chief Ghazi Jabali, who like Rajoub at first defied the order, but then resigned two days later.

The Palestinian leader is still coping with the fallout from the dumping of Rajoub, whose supporters took to the streets Sunday in the West Bank town of Hebron, still angry three days after their boss's ouster.

Officers loyal to Rajoub also met Arafat over the weekend to plead their case against his nominated successor, former Jenin Governor Zuheir Manasrah, saying they had convinced Arafat to reconsider.

Manasrah refused to comment on the matter.

The revolt was another setback to Arafat's pledged reforms aiming to revamp the unwieldy security apparatus that Washington and Israel accuses of aiding Palestinian fighters waging the 21-month-old intifada, or uprising.

US President George Bush has blamed Arafat directly for failing to rein in the militants. Bush's impatience climaxed in his public demand on June 24 for Palestinians to dump Arafat in exchange for US backing for a Palestinian state.

As the Palestinian Authority played down reports of confusion in its upper ranks, Israel's top brass reportedly said Arafat's standing was nose-diving so rapidly that he will be sidelined in six months without any action by Israel.

The Israeli daily 'Haaretz' quoted a senior military source as saying that "chances are increasing that within six months, Arafat's standing will have declined so much that he won't be able to prevent a new, pragmatic leadership from emerging, which will lead the Palestinians to a compromise with Israel".