"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 (then) 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."

The interim peace accord, signed in Washington on September 28, 1995, is however a bilateral accord which does not set out any US specific commitment to immunity for acts against US citizens.

The United States was a co-signatory in the capacity of witness, together with Russia, Egypt, the European Union, and Norway.

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.

The PLF is on the US list and EU lists of terrorist organisations.

In April 1996, Abu Abbas signed up to the PLO charter which had dropped calls for the destruction of the state of Israel and from then on was allowed by Israel to visit the Palestinian territories for meetings of the Palestinian National Council, the PLO's parliament in exile.

He said at the time that the Achille Lauro hijacking was "part of the past" and a "mistake."

Having jumped on the peace camp bandwagon, he said on several occasions he wanted peace, although in his most recent statements to the media in October 2000, at the start of the Palestinian uprising, he pledged to resume attacks on Israel.

Italy, which sentenced Abbas to five life terms in his absence for his role in the Achille Lauro hijacking, said Tuesday it would seek his extradition, though it was unsure where to address the demand.

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