Israelis Arrest Another Suspect in Rabin Killing : Assassination: Woman linked to confessed killer denies guilt. Peres is formally asked to form a new government.

Police said Wednesday that they arrested another suspect in connection with the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Meanwhile, Israeli President Ezer Weizman on Wednesday formally asked Rabin’s successor, acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres, to form a new government and called for the uprooting of the “deformed concept” that led to the assassination of Rabin.

“With my giving to you the task of forming the government, I also give you full backing for the continuation of the peace process,” Weizman told Peres in a brief ceremony at his Jerusalem residence. “My prayer is that we will know how to uproot from among us every trace of the deformed concept that caused the heavy tragedy . . . and that we’ll find the way to strengthen understanding and unity among the people.”

Rabin had one year left in his term when he was slain.

Under Israeli law, Peres has 21 days to form a government that has the support of at least 61 members in the 120-seat Knesset.

Also on Wednesday, police told court magistrates that Margalit Harshefi, 20--like confessed assassin Yigal Amir a law student at the religious Tel Aviv university Bar Ilan--played a central role in the prime minister’s killing and in plans to attack Arabs.

“She is one of the dominant members of an organization that wanted to kill Rabin. She was deeply connected to the murder of Rabin and to planning attacks against Arabs,” a police officer said.

Harshefi, of the Beit El settlement in the West Bank, was brought into court in handcuffs. She wore a sweat shirt and long denim skirt and clutched a small black prayer book.

When Judge Eliezer Cohen read the charges--conspiracy to commit a crime, failure to prevent a felony and involvement in an unnamed illegal organization--Harshefi gave a little laugh and said: “I request a meeting with my lawyer. I am not guilty.”

In addition to the remand, Cohen ordered that she not be allowed to see a lawyer until Sunday. Her lawyer, Denel Peli, and her father, Dov, both said she knew Amir, 25, well but had no criminal connection with him.

Amir, a religious Jew, has admitted to shooting Rabin on Nov. 4 in a parking lot as he left a Tel Aviv peace rally.

Early today, at the parking lot, Amir re-enacted the slaying, protected by dozens of armed police and barricades to keep back scores of shouting passersby.

The re-enactment, a standard procedure in murder cases in Israel, was performed about 3 a.m.

Wearing a white bulletproof vest, jeans and a skullcap, Amir rushed up to a man with a paper tag that said “Yitzhak Rabin” and raised his right arm as if to shoot him in the back. The police officer playing the late premier crumpled to the ground near his limousine.

“You killed Rabin, you piece of garbage!” yelled one spectator as Amir looked on, grinning. Another man tried to press past the barricades and was held back. “You should have protected the prime minister this way,” he said.