Jerusalem ? Israel and Washington have reached a secret agreement on conditions for ousting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat after the U.S. topples Saddam Hussein in Iraq, a leading Israeli newspaper reported Sunday.

Reached by Knight Ridder Newspapers, spokesmen for both Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv declined to either confirm or deny the report carried in the tabloid Yediot Aharanot under the headline, “After Saddam: It is Going to be Arafat’s Turn.”

But Palestinian Authority regime change has been a long-standing goal of Sharon, whose Likud Party recently swept national elections and who has rejected Arafat as a suitable negotiating peace partner for plans for an independent state of Palestine.

Sharon has dispatched trusted aide Dov Weisglass to Washington several times in recent months and, according to the newspaper report, the U.S. and Israel now have a secret agreement — in writing. It did not report the terms.

But Weisglass told state-run Israel Radio over the weekend that, rather than exile Arafat or kill him, Israel wants Palestinians to create the position of a powerful prime minister, which would leave Arafat in a more ceremonial role as president. Israel has such a system.

If Arafat refuses the transfer of power, “We’ll kick him out of here with American authorization,” according to an unnamed “high-ranking Israeli official” quoted in the article.

“In the White House’s eyes, Arafat is no different from Saddam Hussein,” the official was quoted as saying. “The two are intolerable to the same degree.”

Israel’s Cabinet has repeatedly discussed, but so far rejected, the idea of exiling Arafat, in part because he could resume his once epic globe-trotting and fund-raising for the Palestinian cause.