NOT LONG ago reviled as a bloodthirsty terrorist, Mr Yasser Arafat yesterday came to the Oval Office as a national leader. He pledged to stick to his agreements with Israel and pleaded for more US and international aid for the Palestinian people.
Mr Arafat has come to Washington three times since his famous handshake of peace with Mr Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn in 1993, but never before by himself.
His previous meetings here with President Clinton have been essentially ceremonial, for the signing of treaties or formal agreements. But this one hour, one on one business session with Mr Clinton meant more - a symbol of how the Palestinian leader is now a "routine" protagonist in US diplomacy in the Middle East.
Indeed Mr Arafat's itinerary during his 48 hour visit was that of any head of government, complete with addresses to foreign policy groups, an appearance at the National Press Club, a dinner on Capitol Hill last night with cabinet members, businessmen and Congressional leaders.
On Tuesday evening he also met briefly the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, to prepare this month's final round of negotiations to define Palestinian statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Minutes after he stepped out of the black limousine, clad in military uniform and wearing his familiar black and white keffiyeh head dress, Mr Arafat was publicly praised by Mr Clinton for pushing through the Palestinian National Council the historic decision to scrap the PLO's 1964 covenant demanding the destruction of the state of Israel.
"Under difficult circumstances, he kept that commitment," Mr Clinton told reporters - a reference to the recent fighting between Israel and the Hizbullah in southern Lebanon, in which hundreds of civilians died under Israeli bombardment and which at one point threatened to overturn the entire Middle Last peace process.
Although his dealings with the President cannot aspire to match the mutual admiration society that Mr Clinton and Mr Peres are conducting in what is an election year for both of them, Mr Arafat's, high standing at the White House puts him in an unusually strong position to demand that the US and its allies deliver on their pledges of aid for the infant Palestinian state.
In an emotional speech to a Middle East economic conference on Tuesday night, he warned that Palestine had reached "the red line of starvation". His people would respect their commitments to Israel, "but can the American people live beside another nation facing starvation?"
US officials claim Washington has come up with $175 million of the $500 million it promised to the fledgling Palestinian Authority to build up infrastructure in the regions now under partial self rule.
But Mr Arafat said only $27 million of a total $1.3 billion promised by all countries had been forthcoming. He stressed repeatedly here that without tangible material benefit from the agreements with Israel, support for the peace process might wither among the Palestinian people.
Indeed, after Jerusalem's closure of its borders with the West Bank and Gaza after the recent spate of suicide bombings, severing thousands of Palestinians from their jobs in Israel, ordinary Palestinians are worse off than they were before the peace accords were signed.
In an attempt to secure more help from international bodies, Mr Arafat also met Mr James Wolfensohn, the World Bank president, during his stay.