GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Fear of assassination kept Yasser Arafat from accepting a U.S.-brokered deal on sharing Jerusalem, despite pleas by Arab and other world leaders at the time, the Palestinian leader's longtime bodyguard said.

In his first interview with the foreign media since Arafat died a year ago at the age of 75, Mohammed Al Daya also told The Associated Press that he believes his former boss was murdered, but he didn't offer proof or identify any suspects.

Arafat's medical file is inconclusive about the cause of the leader's death on Nov. 11, 2004. Rumors have abounded in the Middle East that he died of AIDS or was poisoned by Israeli agents, a charge Israel denies.

Al Daya was at Arafat's side for 15 years and appeared in virtually every photo of the Palestinian leader. The bodyguard was shot and wounded in 2003 by a member of the Palestinian security forces as a result of a personal rivalry in Arafat's office. The gunman is in detention and has publicly apologized. At the time, Al Daya was removed as Arafat's bodyguard but kept his rank as a lieutenant colonel in the security forces.

Sitting in his small Gaza City apartment under a large photograph of himself and Arafat, Al Daya, 36, sifted through dozens of other snapshots of him with the Palestinian leader.

Al Daya recalled the 2000 Mideast summit when Arafat met with former President Clinton and Ehud Barak, then the Israeli prime minister, at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland in an effort to clinch a peace deal.

Arafat balked at provisions for Jerusalem, which would have involved shared sovereignty, said Al Daya. The dispute over Jerusalem is one of the most intractable issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Palestinians claim the West Bank and Gaza for an independent state, with east Jerusalem as its capital. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its eternal capital.

"I remember one night when he (Arafat) met with Clinton face to face," Al Daya said, adding that only he and a translator were at the door to witness the encounter.

"Clinton was trying to convince him to agree to a deal on Jerusalem," the bodyguard said. But, he recalled, Arafat asked the translator to tell Clinton that "if he wants me to sign this deal, it means he wants to issue an open invitation to my funeral, because I will die at the hand of my own people."'