MIDDLE EAST: The US Middle East envoy, Mr William Burns, met the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, in his besieged Ramallah compound yesterday in yet another vain bid to overcome obstacles to cease-fire talks, as violence flared across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with five Palestinians and one Israeli soldier killed in clashes.
One Palestinian was also killed in Ramallah - in a street not far from Mr Arafat's compound - after he and two other men accused of collaborating with Israel were shot by masked gunmen. All three were admitted to hospital, where the man died of his wounds.
Mr Burns made no headway in his two-hour meeting with Mr Arafat, aimed at brokering a compromise over two stalemate situations - the ongoing Israeli army sieges on the Palestinian leader's compound, and on the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where over 150 Palestinian gunmen have been trapped with a group of monks for three weeks.
Mr Arafat insisted an Israeli withdrawal from all areas occupied since Prime Minister Sharon, launched his West Bank offensive on March 29th, was a precondition to truce talks.
The Israeli leader has said troops will not budge until the suspected killers of the Israeli Tourism Minister, Mr Rehavam Ze'evi, who are said to be trapped inside Mr Arafat's compound, and the gunmen in the Nativity Church, surrender.
"I would not say it was a positive meeting," said Mr Mohammed Rashid, a senior economic aide to Mr Arafat.
With the Ramallah showdown unresolved, a Palestinian minister, Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, yesterday accused Mr Sharon of planning "to assassinate President Arafat", saying the Palestinians knew Israel was discussing "how to raid the compound without harming President Arafat, but I can't see how they could do it without hurting him."
In recent days, local newspapers have reported that Israeli officials are contemplating a possible raid on Mr Arafat's compound in an effort to extract Mr Ze'evi's suspected killers, as well as the Palestinian Authority's chief financial officer, Mr Fuad Shubeiki, whom Israel says is implicated in an attempt to smuggle a shipment of weapons into the Palestinian areas.
Mr Sharon said recently he had given his word to the Americans not to harm Mr Arafat.
But there has been increasing talk in government circles of the possibility of deporting the Palestinian leader.
In the West Bank, two members of the militant Hamas group and an Israeli soldier were killed in a firefight, after troops entered a village near Nablus to arrest a group of militants.
In Gaza, troops said they killed three Palestinians in two separate attempts to infiltrate Jewish settlements.
The army also arrested a 17-year-old Palestinian woman in the West Bank refugee camp of Dehaishe, saying the woman was planning to carry out a suicide attack.
Meanwhile, the highly sensitive task of investigating what transpired in the Jenin refugee camp - scene of the fiercest fighting during Israel's offensive and now the subject of an Israeli-Palestinian dispute over what exactly happened there - will be the responsibility of a UN fact-finding mission, which was named yesterday and is expected in the region later this week.
The team, which will be led by former Finnish president, Mr Martti Ahtisaari, also includes Ms Sadako Ogata, the former UN high commissioner for refugees, and Mr Cornelio Sommaruga, the former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Guardian Service adds: The International Red Cross yesterday accused Israel of breaching the Geneva conventions by recklessly endangering civilian lives and property during its assault on the Jenin refugee camp, and by refusing the injured access to medical personnel for six days.
Amnesty International concurred and called for an investigation on the same basis as the war crimes inquiries in the Balkans.
Mr Rene Kosirnik, the head of the ICRC delegation in the region, said there was little doubt that Israeli had breached international law at the Jenin camp.
"When we are confronted with the extent of destruction in an area of civilian concentration, it is difficult to accept that international humanitarian law has been fully respected," he said.