Shootings setback for truce

JERUSALEM - Two shooting deaths marred the first day of a Middle East truce as Israel's Prime Minister and his Palestinian counterpart prepared to meet today to discuss the way ahead for a United States-led peace plan.

A Palestinian gunman attacked an Israeli Army checkpoint near the West Bank city of Tulkarm last night, despite a ceasefire declared by Palestinian factions, and troops shot him dead, an Army spokesman said.

He said none of the soldiers was hit in the incident that followed a shooting attack earlier, claimed by a West Bank cell of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, that killed a Bulgarian roadworker.

The violence followed a partial Israeli pull-out from the Gaza Strip and a truce by Palestinian guerrillas.

The announcement of the talks between Israel's Ariel Sharon and reformist Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas came after the truce was declared by leading militant factions and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

Sharon told a meeting of his parliamentary Likud faction that progress in peace talks depended on Palestinians "absolutely" suppressing violence. But he also said "a certain number" of Palestinian prisoners in Israel would be freed.

"Our readiness and ability to take risks to give the process a chance will grow if there will be quiet," Sharon said.

At the meeting expected to be held in Sharon's office in Jerusalem, Abbas is likely to present the militants' agreement to a truce as evidence of his reformist Government's effectiveness in securing quiet.

But Sharon has demanded the dismantling of militant groups such as Hamas, which Israel fears will regroup during the ceasefire. He told the Likud there must be "a real war of the Palestinians against terror. Dismantling terror organisations will bring progress".

Palestinian spokesmen have said that Israel could help reduce support for militants by easing Palestinian daily life and withdrawing from Palestinian towns reoccupied at the peak of a Palestinian uprising for statehood last year.

Palestinian Security Minister Mohammed Dahlan said that Israel had agreed to leave the West Bank town of Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, as its next confidence-building measure.

But a senior Israeli security source said the deal on Bethlehem was "not final". The security officials will hold their own separate meeting today to discuss it.

The talks between Sharon and Abbas will be the third since Abbas took office in April in a move, orchestrated by the US and Israel, to reform the Palestinian Authority.

Issues include a Bethlehem pullout, completion of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian prisoners.

Sharon recently described Abbas as a "chicken without wings" for failing to take action against militants, but in an apparent indication of goodwill, several leading Israeli and Palestinian ministers will participate in the meeting, Army radio reported.

The United States, the main sponsor of the "road map" designed to lead in steps by both sides to a Palestinian state and peace agreement by 2005, said the peace process might be "entering a new era".

President George W. Bush was encouraged by what the leaders were doing, said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

- REUTERS