New raids loom after anti-Hamas strike

8.30am - By JEFFREY HELLER

JERUSALEM - Israel has warned of more attacks on Palestinians it brands "ticking bombs" after killing a senior Hamas militant just before an international meeting to rescue a stumbling peace plan.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, issuing an apparent rebuke to Israel, said the killing of Abdullah Kawasme in the West Bank city of Hebron by undercover army commandos on Saturday could impede progress on the "road map" to peace.

But Palestinian officials said a meeting they had on Sunday with new US envoy John Wolf, assigned to shepherd steps to implement the road map, raised prospects for a security deal with Israel important to the plan's first stages.

A senior Palestinian official said the talks focused on practicalities of Israel pulling troops back from the Gaza Strip and handing over control to Palestinian Authority security forces, which Israel expects would then crack down on militants.

"The meeting was positive and serious. They will probably meet tonight to put the finishing touches on an agreement," he said, adding that it could help lead to a ceasefire by militants, although Kawasme's killing was not helpful.

Diplomats at a meeting in Jordan of the peacemaking international "Quartet" attended by Powell said Israel was considering easing its demand for full control of Gaza's main north-south road in favour of joint patrols with Palestinians.

The road, used by Jewish settlers whom militants have targeted, has been the key sticking point in the security talks.

The military wing of Hamas, Islamists bent on destroying Israel, vowed "thundering retaliation" for Kawasme's death and said Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas's call for a truce with Israel was impossible while its men were being killed.

Ismail Abu Shanab, a Hamas political official, told the US television network ABC Israel must halt "track-and-kill" operations against militants and quit Gaza to enable a truce.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the weekly meeting of his right-wing cabinet that the government had demanded Palestinians "act in the most serious manner against terrorist organisations". If they do not, he said, "we will continue our activities to provide security" for Israelis.

Cabinet minister Tzipi Livni said this would include striking "ticking-bomb" militants planning attacks.

Tit-for-tat violence, including Israeli strikes against militants that have also killed civilians, has quickly frayed the peace plan affirmed by Abbas and Sharon at a June 4 summit with US President George W. Bush.

The Quartet that drafted the peace framework -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and United Nations -- discussed in Jordan ways to salvage the plan, which envisages a Palestinian state by 2005 on land Israel captured in a 1967 war.

"I regret we had an incident that could be an impediment to progress," Powell told reporters, referring to the Hebron shooting. "It is a matter of concern. It is still important to remain committed to moving forward."

Separately, the Israeli monitoring group Peace Now said soldiers had dismantled eight Jewish settler outposts in the occupied West Bank in keeping with the road map since the Aqaba summit but defiant settlers had built seven others elsewhere.

Sharon, whose cabinet accepted the road map only under heavy US pressure, told his ministers on Sunday Israelis could continue settlement-building "but just don't publicise it, wave it in the air", a senior political source said.

But he said Sharon meant building "for current needs" within existing main settlements, not new enclaves. Around 220,000 settlers live in 145 established enclaves that have fragmented the territory where 3.5 million Palestinians seek statehood.

- REUTERS