"We ask the US administration for the immediate release of Abu Abbas and for it to respect the 1995 interim agreement between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel ... and signed by (former) US president Bill Clinton," he said.

He pointed to one of its clauses that says PLO members cannot be arrested or tried for acts committed before September 1993.

He said Abbas, who has lived most his life in exile, had "visited the West Bank and Gaza Strip several times with Israel's coordination and for this reason we call on the US administration to respect this agreement and liberate Abu Abbas straight away."

Abu Abbas, who masterminded the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985, was captured in Baghdad Monday by special operations forces backed by US army troops.

He was sentenced in absentia in Italy to five life terms for his role in the Achille Lauro hijacking, in which an elderly, wheelchair-bound American tourist, Leon Klinghoffer, was murdered and thrown into the Mediterranean.

The fugitive leader of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), was living in Iraq under the protection of now toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

US Marines reported the discovery of bomb-making equipment at what was described as a training camp operated by a faction of the PLF.

His group's 1990 attack on a seaside hotel in Tel Aviv prompted the first Bush administration to sever contacts with the PLO. The contacts were resumed with the 1993 Oslo accords.

SPACE.WIRE