Mid-East peace threat

Arab leaders said yesterday the Middle East peace process was in danger of collapse after Israeli forces twice stormed Jerusalem's holiest shrine, the Temple Mount, to battle stone-throwing Palestinian protesters.

The government of Mahmoud Abbas told Israel its actions risked crossing "a red line". Jordan issued a demand for an immediate end to Israeli police incursions into the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's walled old city.

The violence was provoked by rumours that right-wing Jewish activists were planning to gather in the compound where the two Jewish temples of antiquity are believed to have been built.