Israeli and Palestinian officials poured cold water yesterday on the prospects for a new ceasefire between the two sides, illustrating their deepening distrust.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's national security advisor, Jibril Rajub, said that the Palestinian leadership was able to ensure that radical groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, would respect such a ceasefire if Israel halted all its attacks and closures of the Palestinian territories.

But Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesperson dismissed the offer as a ruse by Arafat to counter moves to expel him while a Palestinian minister who has liaised closely with the hardline groups said Israel had no serious desire for a truce.

A first ceasefire, which was never acknowledged by Israel, collapsed a month ago in the wake of a massive suicide bombing by Hamas on a Jerusalem bus, which led the Israelis to declare all-out war on militant groups.

"Israel now thinks that no hudna is useful," said Palestinian culture minister Ziad Abu Amr, who was the Palestinian Authority's chief interlocuter with the armed groups during the first truce, known as the hudna.

"Israel has made its own decision regarding how to deal with Hamas and other factions and that's liquidation," he said.

"It is intent on war against Hamas. You cannot have a one-sided ceasefire so I do not see for the forseeable future a new hudna".

Ranan Gissin, Sharon's chief spokesperson, also said that the Palestinians were not serious about a new ceasefire.

"We have been deceived many times by Arafat," Gissin said.

"When you put pressure on them, threatening to remove Arafat from here and remove this obstacle of peace, suddenly they act.

"After being in the first horror movie called 'hudna', in which we participated not as spectators but as actors, allow us to be a little suspicious".

Gissin said that the proposal floated by Rajub should also be seen as a sign of desperation by groups such as Hamas.

Israel has already killed the hardline movement's co-founder Ismail Abu Shanab and recently tried to assassinate its spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

"Hamas are crying SOS," said Gissin.

Hamas officials have gone to ground in recent days, uncontactable by mobile phone in a sign of wariness that Israel can track their movements.

But the proposal received short shrift from Islamic Jihad, with spokesperson Mohammed al-Hindi dismissing it as "insignificant".

Israel "will not take these declarations seriously and probably understands that the Palestinian position is weak," he added.

Gerald Steinberg, of Israel's Bar-Ilan University, said that prospects of a new truce were "zero" as the Palestinian Authority under the chairmanship of Arafat had no credibility with the Israelis.

"Once you have been burnt you are not so foolish as to put your hand in the fire again," he said. – Sapa-AFP.