A deputy to Ariel Sharon said yesterday there was no immediate plan to harm Palestinian President Yasser Arafat despite renewed threats by the Israeli Prime Minister.

?Prime Minister Ariel Sharon does not intend to put something into action this very week, or today or tomorrow?, vice-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Army Radio.

?He set out a position in principle regarding Arafat and the immunity he (Arafat) thought he enjoyed.?

Sharon, in comments that could rally support in his right wing Likud party before its May 2 vote on his plan to unilaterally pull out from Gaza, has said he no longer felt bound by a pledge he made three years ago to US President George W. Bush not to harm Arafat.

Washington responded by bluntly telling Israel to stick to its pledge. Arafat was defiant.

?I want to tell Sharon and his gang that the mountain cannot be shaken by the wind,? the Palestinian leader said on Saturday at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he has been under virtual Israeli siege for more than two years.