The United States has been training senior Palestinian security officials in an advanced officers course in Ramallah for top-brass, Haaretz has learned.

The new course, entitled "senior leaders' course," is a two-month long program conducted in Ramallah with the assistance and supervision of the U.S., and is part of the project overseen by the U.S. security coordinator in the territories, Gen. Keith Dayton.

So far, the program has produced 80 graduates divided into two 40-student classes. A third class, made up of commanders from the Palestinian National Security - the largest security force with 15,000 members, tasked with policing borders, providing military intelligence, military police services and presidential security - is currently being trained in Jordan.

That class is undergoing special training by Jordanian instructors under American auspices. Most students so far have been army lieutenant colonels and colonels, but the course also accepted commanders from the civilian police, the general intelligence service, the preventative security force and the civilian defense authority.