He must act on admissions of failure

"This speech has very important headlines and we thank Arafat for it, but all the Palestinian institutions could not implement anything without Arafat's signature," said parliament speaker Rawhi Fattuh.

"For that," he said, addressing Arafat directly, "we need from you some formal decisions with your signature about issues you raised in the speech."

A 14-member committee of MPs which has been pushing Arafat to crackdown on corruption and implement reforms in the security services was due to meet the 75-year-old later Wednesday.