"When Ted goes shopping for TV's," the anchorman said, "he usually ends up buying entire stations."

Although Turner has stepped down as head of CNN, he still maintains a marginal interest in his former network because of his current status as vice chairman of CNN's parent company, AOL Time Warner.

Blunt in his public statements, Turner has frequently found himself in deep trouble for shooting from his hips.

When he found some of his staffers with ashes on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday, he asked them: "What are you, a bunch of Jesus freaks?."

Last month he infuriated the Israelis by arguing that Israeli terrorism was no different from Palestinian terrorism.

"The Palestinians are fighting with human suicide bombers because that's all they have," he said.

"The Israelis .. they've got one of the most powerful military machines in the world.

The Palestinians have nothing. So who are the terrorists?", he asked. "I would make a case that both sides are involved in terrorism."

Despite his attempt at an even-handed assessment of the ongoing battle in the occupied territories, Turner's comments struck a raw nerve in Israel which is supersensitive to charges that its military attacks are tantamount to state terrorism.

The Israelis also threatened to kick CNN out of Israel even though Turner no longer lays down the ground rules in his former news network.

Since CNN has a wide audience both in and out of the United States, its reporting on the Middle East is deemed crucial in influencing opinion makers throughout the world.

The controversy also led to the charge that CNN's US news programmes for American audiences give a slightly pro-Israeli slant while CNN International is more sympathetic towards the Palestinians.

But CNN officials have denied both charges. One of its anchors, Wolf Blitzer, was quoted as saying: "If you present both sides, you're going to get slammed for presenting both sides."

Even as the controversy was gradually dying down, a new UN report released last week gave credence to Turner's comments about Israel's overwhelming military might against the Palestinians.

As the situation in occupied territories continues to deteriorate, Israeli forces battling Palestinians are deploying heavier and more sophisticated weapons, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in a report released here.

The arms include F-16 fighter jets, Cobra helicopters, battle tanks and air-to-surface missiles: weapons used in conventional war against enemies armed with similar weapons.

The UNRWA, established to aid Palestinian refugees, also accuses the Israelis of extra-judicial killings and collective punishment of the civilian population.

Since the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000, there have been 58 extra-judicial killings, or targeted assassinations, of Palestinians by Israel.

In some cases, other Palestinians have been killed by helicopter fire, tank fire and gunfire in the course of the assassinations, the report said.

"Currently, most Palestinian deaths result from Israeli missile attacks directed at selected individuals suspected of terrorism, but which, inevitably, have also killed innocent bystanders," UNRWA added.

The study also said that Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have resorted to "excessive use of force, house demolitions, increasingly severe mobility restrictions and closure policies, negatively affecting the Palestinian economy and living conditions."

Israel's policy of barring free access to occupied territories has also seriously impeded the ability of aid agencies to deliver humanitarian assistance.

Currently, more than 130 Israeli checkpoints operate in villages and towns in the occupied territories- all manned by soldiers who are accused of "humiliating" and "abusing" Palestinians, including aid workers.

A coalition of 32 international humanitarian organisations- including Oxfam, Care International, Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders- has criticised Israel's continued siege of Palestinian towns.

The relief agencies complain of severe restrictions on the movement of their local staff, mostly Palestinians, and continued harassment by Israeli troops. "In all my years of experience, I have never come across anything like this," Ian Willis of Care International, was quoted as saying.

Peter Hansen, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, told a UN news conference that humanitarian conditions in the West Bank and Gaza had fallen "to levels unprecedented in 35 years" of UN presence in the region.

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