The militant Islamic group Hamas said today it would continue to attack Israelis everywhere, setting back hopes that the Palestinians were edging towards a ceasefire with Israel.
But in a sign of stepped up US efforts to end eight months of violence, a US official in Washington said CIA Director George Tenet would return to the Middle East tomorrow for Israeli-Palestinian security talks.
It will be Mr Tenet's first trip to the region since October, although lower-ranking CIA officials have been involved in meetings with both sides this year that failed to halt the bloodshed.
"We are not offering any ceasefire!, a senior Hamas official said, pledging to attack Israelis everywhere, four days after a Hamas suicide bomber killed 20 people at a Tel Aviv nightclub on Friday and prompted Israel to threaten military reprisals.
"If I accept a ceasefire it means...I am raising a white flag", Hamas's spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, told reporters. "They (Israel) should remove their settlers. Our land must be returned and our people must win liberation".
A Hamas official had said after a meeting with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat yesterday that the group might halt attacks inside Israel.
Under international pressure, Mr Arafat promised a ceasefire on Saturday.
Israeli officials have acknowledged a drop in violence since then in the West Bank and Gaza Strip but said Mr Arafat had yet to meet their demand to re-arrest scores of Islamic militants freed from jail soon after the uprising erupted in September.
In the West Bank town of Tulkarm an activist in Mr Arafat's Fatah faction was critically wounded when his car exploded. Fatah accused Israel of attempting to assassinate him. The Israeli army denied the allegation.
Little new fighting was reported today after a fierce gunbattle yesterday in which 20 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were injured in the Gaza Strip near the Egyptian border.