Shooting mars Middle East peace push

JERUSALEM - United States Secretary of State Colin Powell will try to persuade wary Israeli and Palestinian leaders today to start implementing a US-backed "road map" for Middle East peace.

"There is enough agreement on the road map that we can get started," Powell said yesterday, beginning a regional visit which he said signalled President George W. Bush's determination to move forward on Israeli-Palestinian peace after the Iraq war.

"There is a need to end violence now. There is a need to end terror now. There is a need to take some steps that will make life a little better for the Palestinian people."

After 31 months of bloodshed, neither side was anxious to make the first move.

Several hours after Powell met Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli vehicle near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, killing the driver, police said.

The driver's identity was not immediately known. Jewish settlers living in communities on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war have been frequent targets of Palestinian militants in the uprising for independence.

Sources close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whom Powell was to meet today, said even before the shooting that Israel would balk at troop pullbacks prescribed by the road map until the new Palestinian Government reined in militant groups.

Instead, Sharon planned to announce several humanitarian gestures such as restoring Palestinian fishing rights off Gaza, easing the transfer of goods between Israel and Palestinian areas, and releasing several dozen detainees.

Hours after Powell's arrival, the Israeli Army said that Palestinian labourers, temporarily banned from their jobs in Israel during a security alert for recent Jewish holidays, could return to work.

Israeli roadblocks remain around Palestinian cities, a measure Israel says helps stop suicide bombers from reaching its cities but which Palestinians condemn as collective punishment.

- REUTERS