The driver of an Israeli passenger train has been injured in a bomb attack on a train near Tel Aviv today.
The strike comes a day after senior Israeli and Palestinian officials resumed talks, aimed at easing the restrictions placed on hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been under curfew in the West Bank and Gaza for more than a month.
The explosion went off on the tracks in the town of Yavneh and damaged the engine of the passenger train, police said. The train's engineer was injured in the abdomen from the force of the blast but the train was not derailed, police said.
The bomb was set off by remote control and weighed about five kilos, police said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but police said they believed Palestinian militants were responsible.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who led the Israelis in last night's talks with Palestinians, said today that teams from both sides would meet in the coming days to discuss ways of removing, or at least easing, the measures the Israeli army has imposed on many West Bank areas for the past month.
Mr Peres met for three hours with a delegation headed by Mr Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian cabinet minister. One of the main subjects in the upcoming talks will be the possible transfer of income and sales taxes that Israel has collected on behalf of the Palestinians, but has withheld for months.
Israel is now holding about $600 million dollars, saying it doesn't want to release the money to the Palestinian Authority, because Israel believes it has been funding terror attacks against Israel.
Israel will not transfer the funds until an international committee is set up to oversee how the money is handled, Mr Peres said.
On another issue, Israel would be prepared to withdraw troops from the Palestinian cities and towns areas where Palestinian security can prevent attacks, Mr Peres said.
"We have no interest in staying in those places where the Palestinians can prove that they can take control," Mr Peres said.
But the Palestinians said they can't prevent attacks if the Israelis are in control and the Palestinian forces are not allowed to operate in a normal manner.
An aide to Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat, Mr Nabil Abu Rdeneh, said any success in the meetings would be contingent on Israel's withdrawal from West Bank areas it has occupied in the past month.
PA