JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday suspended a further troop withdrawal from the West Bank, demanding that Palestinians retract what he considered offending statements.

Netanyahu said the pullback was on hold until Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat rescinded his threat to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state in May.

Arafat had threatened to declare independence should the Palestinians find that the limited autonomy accords were not being implemented as originally envisaged in the Oslo peace accord signed in the early 1990s.

Netanyahu also said he wanted Arafat to retract threats of renewed violence.

Arafat said in a speech and radio address on Sunday that Palestinians could rekindle their uprising, or intifada, if Israel strayed from the path of peace and might resort to the use of arms to defend their rights in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu's decision effectively freezes implementation of the land-for-peace accord, known as the Wye River accord, which he signed with Arafat in the United States in October.