AMMAN (AFP) - Palestinians trained in Jordan will be deployed in the West Bank, Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Mulki told AFP as he denied Israeli media reports that Jordanian forces would be sent to the area.

"They are PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) forces that have been denied to go inside the territories," Mulki said Thursday.

"They are not Jordanian, they are Palestinian, and they have been trained by Jordanian special forces. They abide by the instructions of the president of the Palestinian Authority," he said.

Israel´s Maariv newspaper reported that Jordan´s King Abdullah II had offered deploy 1,000 Jordanian troops in the northern West Bank to ensure order after Israel pulls out from four small settlements there later this year.

But Mulki insisted that the force, described by the Israeli media as the Badr Brigade, was made up of Palestinians trained in Jordan.

"They are not ours. Jordan has no jurisdiction over them. They were our guests and we trained them," he said.

"Since the Israelis are saying they want them and there is a need in the West Bank for their activity. and approval by Israel, we will deploy them.

"It is not our decision to tell them to go. They want to go and it is a decision by both the Palestinians and the Israelis," he added.

Maariv said the deployment was awaiting Israel´s endorsement but that Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas had already given the move his approval.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told public radio he was not aware of such proposal but did not exclude the idea of a foreign presence in the northern West Bank after the pullout.

"We´re not opposed, for example, to US security experts being posted in the Gaza Strip or in Judea and Samaria," said Peres, using the biblical name for the West Bank.

"It mostly depends on the Palestinians," he added.

Jordan once administered the West Bank which was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War war.

King Abdullah´s father, the late King Hussein, formally renounced any responsiblity over the West Bank in 1988, saying Palestinians should negotiate the fate of the territory in the framework of a possible peace accord with Israel. (Copyright © 2005 Agence France Presse. 02/03/05)