The State Department said Washington was intent on seeing Abbas brought to justice for the 1985 hijacking of an Italian cruise liner in which a US citizen was murdered and rejected Palestinian demands for his immediate release.

As the family of the slain American tourist, Leon Klinghoffer, said it wanted Abbas prosecuted, the department said it would consult with Italian officials who said earlier Wednesday they would seek his extradition.

Deputy spokesman Philip Reeker seized on Abbas' Monday capture in southern Baghdad as partial vindication for the invasion of Iraq which Washington justified by claiming Saddam backed terrorists among other allegations.

"The capture of this notorious terrorist, responsible for the brutal murder of an American citizen, is a major victory in the global war against terrorism and provides further evidence of Saddam's regime's connection to international terrorism," deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said.

At the Pentagon, spokeswoman Torie Clark echoed that argument saying the detention of Abbas "is part of" US efforts to find and eliminate Baghdad's terrorist links.

Neither Clark nor Reeker could elaborate on Abbas' legal status as a prisoner of an occupying army wanted by a third country but said US officials were trying to determine how to proceed.

But Reeker made clear that Abbas would not escape prosecution and noted that he had already been convicted and sentenced in absentia to five life terms by an Italian court for his role in the hijacking of the Achille Lauro liner.

"The United States believes that all terrorists should be brought to justice for their crimes and so obviously this will be a matter of discussion with the government of Italy as we review together options," he told reporters.

Reeker referred all questions about possible US criminal proceedings against Abbas to the Justice Department.

However, he did reject out of hand Palestinian calls for Abbas, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) who is also known as Mohammed Abbas, to be released on the basis of an immunity clause in 1995 Oslo Peace Accords.

Palestinian officials said Abbas' detention is illegal because of the clause which says members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), of which the PLF is part, cannot be arrested or tried for acts committed before September 1993.

Reeker said the clause the Palestinians were trying to invoke was moot as it bound only the Jewish state and the Palestinian Authority.

"The 1995 interim agreement concerns arrangements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority for the detention and prosecution of certain persons," he told reporters.

"The United States is not a party to that or any amnesty arrangements regarding Abu Abbas," Reeker said.

Earlier, another State Department official said the clause in 1995 deal "does not apply to the legal status of persons detained in a third country."

Israeli officials have sided with the US position although they have allowed Abbas to transit the Jewish state to visit the Palestinian territories since April 1996 when he signed onto the PLO charter which had dropped calls for the destruction of Israel.

At that time, Abbas said the Achille Lauro hijacking was "part of the past" and a "mistake" and maintained on several occasions that he wanted peace.

However, in his most recent statements to the media in 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.

Meanwhile, the daughters of Klinghoffer, the wheelchair-bound, 69-year-old retiree who was murdered and thrown into the Mediterranean during the Achille Lauro hijacking, said they wanted Abbas jailed for their fathers' murder.

"We have been waiting for this day for 17 years," Lisa Klinghoffer told NBC television. "I hope this sends that message out to future terrorists out there -- or people plotting and planning right now -- that they can't hide."

"We have worked a lot to see this day happen," added his other daughter Ilsa.

Klinghoffer had been taking his wife on the cruise to mark their 36th wedding anniversary when the hijacking occurred. His wife died four months after he was murdered.

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