UN talks of aborting Jenin probe blocked by Israel

2.30pm

JERUSALEM - Israel has defied the UN by again refusing to give the go-ahead for a mission to investigate the attack on Jenin refugee camp that Palestinians call a massacre, prompting UN chief Kofi Annan to consider calling it off.

A UN fact-finding team has been stranded in Geneva as Israel raises objections to its mission, despite having agreed in principle to an investigation. The Israeli cabinet again failed to give approval on Tuesday, and a senior UN official said Annan was "minded to disband the team."

The dispute overshadowed an Israeli pullout from Palestinian-ruled areas in the West Bank city of Hebron and signs of movement in the Israeli army's siege of Palestinian gunmen in Bethlehem's Nativity church, as 26 people left the shrine.

The Hebron pullback followed Israel's acceptance of a US plan that would end a month-long siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's presidential compound and was likely to smooth the way for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's planned White House visit next week.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said Israel's siege of Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah would end "in the next day or so" once arrangements were completed to transfer six Palestinians wanted by Israel from his compound to a jail in nearby Jericho, under US and British supervision.

After initially welcoming the idea of a UN investigation into Jenin, Israel has raised objections to the mission of the fact-finding panel, named by Annan nearly two weeks ago.

Israel denies there was any massacre in the refugee camp during its assault, which it says was intended to root out militants as part of an offensive launched across the West Bank on March 29 following Palestinian suicide attacks.

Annan was expected to make a decision soon on whether to cancel the mission or disband the team and resume talks to resolve the impasse with Israel.

The United States, however, favoured keeping the mission alive, diplomats said. "They want to breathe life into a corpse," said one envoy at the United Nations in New York.

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