WASHINGTON - A top Palestinian official was calling yesterday on Secretary of State Colin Powell, seeking assurances the Bush administration will not sever diplomatic contact with Yasser Arafat.

Ahmed Qureia, speaker of the Palestinian parliament, met first with Assistant Secretary of State William Burns as European and Arab leaders tried to steer the administration to peacemaking amid the bloodshed.

With Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, due to meet with President Bush on Thursday, the administration continues to give its strong backing to Israel and to insist on action by Arafat to stop Palestinian attacks.

"We don't believe we've seen a 100 percent effort," Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, said on "Fox News Sunday."

Similarly, Powell said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that Arafat "has to do a lot more to get the violence under control."

But Powell has balanced his calls for more action by Arafat with assurances he will push for a Palestinian state on land held by Israel once the fighting slows down.

Powell also has countered advice to Bush from Vice President Dick Cheney and Pentagon officials to suspend contact with Arafat in light of the attacks and a Palestinian attempt to smuggle in 50 tons of Iranian rockets, mortar and explosives.

So far, Bush has come down on Powell's side. Sharon is expected to ask the president to break with Arafat - but not with the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli defense minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, is due in Washington tomorrow to see Cheney, Powell, Rice and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Yesterday, Lebanon's prime minister, Rafiq Hariri, urged the United States to reconsider its Mideast policies, saying American support for Israel was likely to destroy chances for peace between the Arabs and Israel.

Addressing Parliament during a debate of the 2002 draft budget, Hariri said, "The recent U.S. attitudes make it difficult for the Arabs, both peoples and leaders, to continue watching for long their brothers in Palestine being killed daily and their rights infringed upon."

Typical of the Europeans' advice was a call by Javier Solana, director of foreign policy for the European Union, for an end to the Middle East stalemate.

Solana said the Palestinian Authority must "do the utmost to stop violence" and "the Israeli government has to begin to get engaged with some political perspective."