Palestinian prisoners to be released

JERUSALEM - Israel agreed yesterday to free hundreds more Palestinian prisoners, disappointing Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas' hopes for a full amnesty but keeping a United States-backed peace "road map" in motion.

Abbas met Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at his Jerusalem residence and was promised that several hundred prisoners would be released, said Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr.

Hours later, the Israeli Army said an Islamic Jihad militant blew himself up accidentally while laying a mine east of the West Bank city of Jenin. Islamic Jihad said troops shot the man dead as he fled arrest.

In another incident, an assailant thought to be Palestinian knifed and seriously wounded an Israeli pedestrian in Jerusalem.

- REUTERS