OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 16 October — Israeli police detained the Mufti of Jerusalem, the Palestinians’ highest Muslim religious authority, for several hours yesterday for questioning about statements he allegedly made in defense of bombers.

The police said in a statement that Sheikh Ikrima Sabri was detained for questioning "at the instruction of the state attorney-general".

The inquiry was launched over statements Sabri allegedly made to an Arab newspaper, describing bombing as a legitimate act of self-defense against occupation, police said. Sabri denied the quotes attributed to him and condemned his arrest.

"I am the Mufti of the Holy Land, I condemn the manner in which I was arrested," Sabri told Reuters upon his release after a three-hour interrogation. Israeli police had questioned Sabri in September 2001 over remarks he made during sermons at an Arab conference in Lebanon.

In other developments, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said yesterday he was mulling a swift pullback of his troops from reoccupied areas of Hebron, while in northern Israel four people were injured when a metal projectile smashed through the windows of a bus.

Police initially called the incident an apparent shooting attack. They later backtracked after no bullet casings were found and residents of a nearby kibbutz said a wood chipper machine on its grounds could have sent pieces of metal or rocks flying as far as the road.

The latest incident came as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arrived in Washington for talks with US President George W. Bush, who has called for calm in the region. At their White House meeting set for today, Bush was likely to urge Sharon to do more to relieve hardships imposed on Palestinian cities after bombings in a two-year-old Palestinian uprising for independence.

Ben Eliezer said in France his forces which have been in Palestinian areas of Hebron since mid June could pull out "by the end of the week if the conditions on the ground allow it."

Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian Cabinet minister and President Arafat’s chief negotiator, told Reuters Israel was not talking with the Palestinian Authority about a new withdrawal. "It (pullout) should have happened a long time ago," he said.

Palestinian International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath said yesterday Arafat will announce a new Cabinet line-up in the coming days.

"President Arafat will announce this Cabinet by the end of this week. His consultations are very successful," Shaath said here after talks with the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Brussels.

In violence late Monday unidentified people fired into the air and threw a Molotov cocktail at the house of Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser. No one was injured in the attack and Palestinian security forces were quick to the scene putting out the fire caused by the petrol bomb, he said.

Meanwhile, Israel’s Parliament has installed a bomb shelter and an air-filter system while readying for a possible Iraqi biological or chemical weapons attack, the Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot reported yesterday. The shelter and air-filter have been installed in the Knesset’s gymnasium, the daily said.