King Hussein lashed out Sunday at Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and said he had no intention of competing with him for political and territorial sovereignty in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Hussein reiterated that he would give up religious custody over Islamic shrines in Arab east Jerusalem, which Jordan once ruled, and turn it over "only to the Palestinians when they are ready to take up such responsibilities."The monarch also rejected criticism that he broke ranks with Syria and Lebanon and said he could not put off signing a peace treaty with Israel once Jordan had resolved its conflicts with the Jewish state.

In the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, pro-PLO activists burned a portrait of Hussein during a protest against the Israel-Jordan peace treaty by about 3,000 Palestinians. Palestinians have been protesting the treaty daily.

Speaking somberly, Hussein said his patience was wearing thin with anti-peace rhetoric by Muslim fundamentalists - some of whom have publicly described the monarch as an infidel - and warned: "It is imperative that this immediately stops."

The treaty marks a formal end to the state of war that has existed between the two countries since Israel's founding in 1948. It gives the kingdom a special role in caring for Islamic shrines in Jerusalem.

That enraged Arafat, who saw the clause as an attempt to undercut the Palestinians' quest for political sovereignty over Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as the capital of a future independent state.

Addressing Arafat, Hussein said: "We are not competing with our brethren in Palestine on Jerusalem or on their rights on their national soil."

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