New violence as Mideast talks stall

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat called on Israel to return to the negotiating table

JERUSALEM -- A Jewish settler has been shot dead by a Palestinian gunman on a road near the Palestinian-ruled town of Tulkarm in the West Bank, the Israeli army says.

A spokeswoman said the man, from the Mevo Dotan settlement, was shot in the head in his car Thursday.

The latest violence follows two-days of talks between senior Israeli and Palestinian security officials which failed to produce any signs of progress.

The second day of talks, Wednesday, were held as opposing forces clashed nearby.

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The Israeli army said it fired tank shells at a Palestinian police post near Kissufim Crossing in Gaza from where heavy gunfire and anti-tank grenades had been directed at Israeli military positions.

A Palestinian security spokesman said two Palestinian police posts near the Kissufim junction were damaged by Israeli tank shells.

No-one was injured in the incident, which came as security talks at the Erez Crossing, several kilometers (miles) to the north, convened under U.S. auspices.

The security talks took place despite a car bomb attack outside a school in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya earlier on Wednesday in which two people suffered light injuries.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility.

The talks, which followed a similar meeting in the West Bank Tuesday, later closed with no progress reported.

An Israeli defence spokesman said it was agreed, however, that lower-level meetings between Israeli and Palestinian field officers would be held in the next few days.

Israeli internal security service chief Avi Dichter and Southern Command General Doron Almog met Gaza Public Security Director Major-General Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh and Palestinian intelligence chief Amin al-Hindi for three hours in an office at the Erez Crossing.

In a statement, al-Majaydeh said he had passed on a series of requests for Israel to ease restrictions on Palestinian movement in Gaza, reopen Gaza airport and allow labourers and fishermen to work normally.

"We are awaiting an Israeli response to our legitimate demands," he said in a statement.

Both sides have accepted the Mitchell commission's report on how to stop violence in the Middle East in principle but have reservations on its implementation.

It calls for a freeze on settlement activity, including what the Israelis call the "natural growth" of the settlements. It also calls on the Palestinians to crack down on terrorism.

Israel opposes a total freeze of Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank and Gaza, while Palestinians want the report to be implemented as a package, not in stages.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told CNN that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "must understand that he must choose between settlements and peace. He cannot have both."

Erakat, calling on the Sharon government "to return to the negotiating table unconditionally," added: "We need peace more than anybody else on this earth.

"The Palestinians must recognise the state of Israel on 78 percent of the mandatory Palestine, and accept merely 22 percent of the land. And you know what, we said yes.

"Now, on the remaining 22 percent of what we have settled for the Sharon government is seeking to confiscate more land to build more settlements, to undermine any effort to establish a Palestinian state. This is the situation."

He said that the Palestinians would continue to recognize the state of Israel.

"This position stands. This position will continue to stand," he said, but added that a political solution required an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

"This is the shortest way for security and peace for both Palestinians and Israelis. We're going to reach that one day, but the sooner we can do it the more Israeli and Palestinian lives we will save."

Sharon said he would stick to a limited unilateral cease-fire he announced last week despite 130 Palestinian attacks -- including the killings of three Jewish settlers on Tuesday -- since he made the call.

"Blood is boiling, and justly," said Sharon, who is due to visit Germany, France and Belgium next week in a bid to win support for the unilateral ceasefire that Palestinians have rejected as a sham.

However, he defended his ceasefire stance, saying: "I know that I am attacked for announcing a ceasefire, but its my responsibility to look at the big picture."

Sharon, meanwhile, has asked the U.S. to increase pressure on Arafat to stop eight months of violence.

A source close to the Israeli government told Reuters that Sharon, in a telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, early on Thursday described recent Palestinian attacks on Israelis as "intolerable."

"The United States has to put pressure on Arafat to stop the violence. The situation is intolerable. Israel cannot continue in this situation for many days," the source quoted Sharon as saying.

In another sign of international concern over the violence, the Vatican announced that Pope John Paul had sent two senior envoys to meet Sharon and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat .