A day after Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani expelled Yasir Arafat from a concert for world leaders at Lincoln Center, the Clinton Administration sharply criticized the Mayor yesterday for what Washington officials called an embarrassing breach of international diplomacy.

Mr. Giuliani, clearly relishing the controversy, insisted that he could never forgive and play host to Mr. Arafat even though the Palestinian leader has been embraced as a peacemaker by the Israeli and United States Governments.

A spokesman for the United States Mission to the United Nations said the Administration made it clear to the city that Mr. Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, could be invited to local events. Mr. Clinton invited him to a White House reception on Sunday.

"We regard the incident as unfortunate in light of the constructive role that Chairman Arafat has played in the Mideast peace process," said the spokesman, James P. Rubin. A senior Administration official in Washington, who insisted on not beingidentified, went even further, saying the incident on Monday night was "an embarrassment to everyone associated with diplomacy."

But the Mayor, explaining his decision yesterday, called Mr. Arafat a murderer and terrorist, and said he was not impressed by the fact that Mr. Arafat had twice been invited to the White House to sign the Middle East peace accords, or that he shared the Nobel Peace Prize.

"I would not invite Yasir Arafat to anything, anywhere, anytime, anyplace," Mr. Giuliani said at a news conference yesterday. "I don't forget."

Mr. Giuliani said his antipathy toward Mr. Arafat -- like his antipathy toward the Cuban leader Fidel Castro -- went back to his days as a Federal prosecutor. As United States Attorney, he investigated several terrorist incidents to which the P.L.O. was linked, including the hijacking in 1985 of the Achille Lauro cruise ship. As far as he was concerned, the Mayor said, the statute of limitations on those incidents has not run out.

"He has never been held to answer for the murders that he was implicated in," the Mayor said. "The U.N. is one thing, the peace process is another thing. When we're having a party and a celebration, I would rather not have someone who has been implicated in the murders of Americans there, if I have the discretion not to have him there."

The Mayor said Mr. Arafat was never invited to the concert, but was given a ticket to it by a country the Mayor did not identify. A P.L.O. official disputed that statement, saying Mr. Arafat was given tickets by the official organizing committee.

"The Mayor is not telling the truth," said Muin Shreim, counselor for the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations. "I personally picked up the tickets from the New York City Host Committee. He is lying. It was an envelope marked 'Palestine.' There were three tickets inside."

Mr. Shreim accused the Mayor of pandering to voters, and Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinians' observer at the United Nations, characterized the incident as very sad.

"It only indicates that the office of the Mayor has been hijacked by some fanatics in this city," he said. "It is also sad that while boasting about New York as the capital of the world, as a great city -- and it's true -- he has misbehaved in such sensitive political issues."

The New York Philharmonic concert at Avery Fisher Hall was sponsored by the New York City Host Committee, a private group organized by Mr. Giuliani to sponsor several events surrounding the anniversary. Last Friday an aide to the Mayor sent the United Nations a list of countries that should be excluded from events sponsored by the committee. The list included the Palestinian mission and seven countries not recognized by the United States: Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Yugoslavia, Libya, North Korea and Somalia.

The Mayor said yesterday that when he was told that Mr. Arafat had entered the concert hall, he told his chief of staff, Randy Mastro, to ask him to leave.

"Randy told him that he wasn't invited, he wasn't welcome, and we would prefer that he leave," Mr. Giuliani said. "He stayed for awhile, then he left."

Witnesses said Mr. Arafat heard the first two movements of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

A witness to the incident, who insisted on anonimity, said Mr. Arafat was spotted in the audience because of his Arab headdress. When Mr. Mastro spoke to him, the witness said, Mr. Arafat smiled and said nothing. A few minutes after Giuliani Administration officials spoke to Mr. Arafat's aides in the foyer, Mr. Arafat and his entourage left, the witness said.

Late yesterday afternoon mayoral aides distributed several copies of congratulatory messages that Mr. Giuliani had received from conservative Jewish organizations, including the orthodox Agudath Israel of America, which wrote, "Bravo!"

Abraham Foxman, the national director of the centrist Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, said he had no problem with the Mayor's action, though he did not send any messages of praise to City Hall.

"One can support the peace process and not embrace Mr. Arafat, and I think the Mayor's entitled not to want to socialize with him," said Mr. Foxman, who counts himself a supporter of the peace accords. "The memory is still there, and there will be anger with him a little bit longer."

The Israeli Government had no comment, but the leader of a Jewish organization that met with Mr. Arafat on Monday pointedly noted that Israel regularly meets with the P.L.O. leader.

"We think it's important to demonstrate that the normalization of relations between Israel and the Palestinians can go forward," said Dr. Lawrence Rubin, executive vice chairman of the National Jewish Community Relations Council. "But clearly Mayor Giuliani has domestic political considerations."

Two frequent critics of the Mayor -- his predecessors, David N. Dinkins and Edward I. Koch -- scheduled a news conference for this afternoon to "denounce the discourtesy" displayed by Mr. Giuliani to Mr. Arafat and to Mr. Castro.

Mr. Giuliani said Mr. Arafat was not invited because the United States does not have diplomatic relations with the P.L.O. But the senior Clinton Administration official said that was simply because the P.L.O. represents no country. The official added that the United States considers the P.L.O. the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.