US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell has spelled out Washington's vision for peace in the Middle East and announced a diplomatic mission but offered no solutions.
Setting out US Middle East policy in a speech at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, Mr Powell said two US mediators would be sent to "prod" peace moves forward based on a truce-to-talks plan agreed in April.
His speech repeated US calls for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and demanded action from both sides to end almost 14 months of bloodshed in which nearly 900 people have died. His speech won cautious praise from both sides.
President Bush wants calm to bolster Arab support for the US-led war on terror following the September 11th attacks on Washington and New York.
But fresh violence underlined the obstacles the United States faces in the region.
Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian as he tried to plant explosives near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank yesterday, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
Three Israeli settlers were wounded in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank. Three Palestinians were also hurt in an hour-long Israeli incursion into the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza.
The sides traded recriminations over an Israeli tank raid that killed two Palestinians and damaged an American school in the Gaza Strip late on Sunday.
At least 710 Palestinians and 188 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in September 2000 after peace talks stalled.