Israel's minister for internal security, Uzi Landau, fired back Friday at both Israeli and US critics of his order to close the office of a leading Palestinian moderate, Sari Nusseibeh.

"I'm sorry some people take stands without having read the reports of the Shin Beit (internal security service) about illegal activities challenging Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem carried out in these offices," Landau told public radio.

On Landau's orders, Israeli police on Tuesday closed the administrative offices of the Palestinian Al-Qods university in occupied east Jerusalem, headed by Sari Nusseibeh, the PLO's pointman for the disputed city.

Landau said the activities were linked "to the Palestinian Authority, which is unacceptable. We are in a state governed by law in which the law must be respected and we must not close our eyes to those who violate it."

Israel, which occupied and annexed in 1967 the eastern part of Jerusalem, considers the whole of the holy city its eternal and undivided capital, barring any Palestinian diplomatic activity there.

Landau, a hawk within Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud party, was responding to Defense Minister and Labor Party leader Binyamin Ben Eliezer, who demanded to know why the action was taken against a likely peace partner.

"I don't understand why we target someone who supports a demilitarized state, the renunciation of applying the right of return (for Palestinian refugees) and a dialogue with Israel," he said on public television.

"It is not possible to humiliate so rudely a moderate who condemns anti-Israeli attacks and who is likely to become a partner during negotiations," he added.

"During Sunday's cabinet meeting, I intend to ask for explanations."

Israel earned a rare rebuke from its main ally Washington when White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the closure this week of the administrative offices of the Palestinian Al-Quds university in east Jerusalem was "troubling."

The university is headed by one of the most moderate voices in Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Sari Nusseibeh, who has proposed ground-breaking compromises with Israel to seek a peace deal.

"This action does not contribute to the fight against terrorism, does not promote reform of Palestinian institutions," Fleischer said, adding that US officials were discussing the matter with Israel.

Nusseibeh is charged with the Jerusalem file in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He has been a main force among Palestinians who have signed a petition against suicide bombings, and has said Palestinians must abandon their claim to a right of return to Palestinian lands.

Nusseibeh's lawyer, Jawada Boulos, said he would appeal the closure in court.

The closure amounted to "a new violation by Israel of the Israeli-Palestinian accords authorizing the functioning of Palestinian institutions," Palestinian interior minister Yasser Abed Rabbo also protested.

Israel shut down Orient House in east Jerusalem August 10 following a Palestinian attack in west Jerusalem on similar grounds.

Orient House was the unofficial headquarters in Jerusalem of the PLO and symbolized Palestinian ambitions to make the eastern sector the capital of a future state of their own.AFP