Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat named Ahmed Qurei as prime minister of an emergency cabinet on Sunday in the aftermath of a massive suicide bombing in northern Israel.

　　"President Arafat has signed a de-cree creating an eight-member emer-gency government," Qurei told re-porters. He said the government would "operate for one month" after which it would seek the approval of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). Arafat also declared a state of emergency in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

　　PLC sources said the moves would help the Palestinian leadership to launch a crackdown on militant fac-tions such as Hamas and IslamicJi-had, the movement behind Saturday's attack in Haifa，which left 19 people dead.