US brokers new peace meeting

Palestinian Hamas activists attend a rally marking the 16th anniversary of the founding of the Hamas Islamic group in the West Bank town of Nablus on Sunday. PHOTO: AP

A US mediator set up a three-way meeting with Israeli and Palestinian officials, designed to bring premiers together and restart long-stalled talks on a peace plan to end more than three years of bitter violence.

The session was set for yesterday afternoon, with top aides to the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers taking part along with a US diplomat, officials said.

The goal was to schedule a summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart, Ahmed Qureia, a first step to unfreezing negotiations over the US-backed "road map" plan.

US David Satterfield has been meeting with Israeli and Palestinian officials, indicating that the US government is running out of patience with the failure to move the road map forward.

Officials the two sides have met repeatedly in recent weeks to try to set up a meeting between Sharon and Qureia, but no date has been set.

Qureia assurances that he will not leave the meeting empty-handed, while Sharon has said he will not accept preconditions for a summit. Qureia was hoping to take a Palestinian agreement for a cease-fire to a summit, but talks among Palestinian factions in Cairo did not produce such an accord.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said yesterday's meeting "will discuss ways to implement the road map," declining to elaborate.

The road map envisages an independent Palestinian state by 2005. In the first of three phases, it requires the Palestinians to crack down on militants and the Israelis to freeze settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. But the plan has been stalled for months.

Sharon his deputy have hinted in recent days that if peace efforts fail, Israel could take unilateral action, including abandoning settlements in Gaza. Sharon is expected to outline his plans on Thursday in a speech to a symposium on national security in the Israeli city of Herzliya.

The comments have unnerved Israeli settlers, who say that talk of a withdrawal has invited violence such as Sunday's mortar barrage in Gaza.

The army said that 21 shells had hit the Gush Katif settlement bloc in southern Gaza over 24 hours, causing minor damage.

"Unfortunately, so long as we get closer to the Herzliya conference, the bombings will increase," said Eran Sternberg, a spokesman for the Gaza settlers.

Early Israeli forces backed by about two dozen tanks raided the Khan Younis refugee camp near the bloc of settlements. Palestinian residents of the camp said the army demolished eight buildings -- three of them abandoned, and five of them houses that people don't sleep in at night due to frequent firefights in the area.

The military said the goal of the operation was to destroy buildings used by militants for firing mortars. A fierce gun battle erupted during the raid, but no casualties were reported.

In other violence on Sunday, Israeli troops shot and killed an armed Islamic Jihad fugitive near the West Bank town of Ramallah, the army said. The army said the man had a semiautomatic weapon and rounds of ammunition. Later, troops arrested two other Islamic Jihad militants, the army said.

Also on Sunday, the Islamic militant group Hamas staged rallies in the West Bank and Gaza to mark its 16th anniversary. Hundreds of marchers dressed up as suicide bombers.