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WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department has suspended all formal contacts with Palestinian Authority representatives in the United States for at least the next nine days, as a result of a bureaucratic delay.

Legislation that allows diplomatic contact with the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington has lapsed, a State Department official confirmed Wednesday.

The Washington PLO office "has been asked, beginning today, to suspend activities," said the official.

The suspension came on the eve of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's two-day visit to Washington. Clinton administration officials hope to have the PLO office reopened before Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat's visit later this month.

The suspension occurred because the State Department, waiting for Israel and the Palestinians to reach an accord on Hebron, missed a deadline to certify that the Palestinians are in compliance with their accords with Israel. Terms of the Middle East Peace Facilitation Act, first passed in 1993, require the State Department to report to Congress on PLO compliance every six months.