Israeli minister on Temple Mount

The compound, in Jerusalem's Old City, is holy to Muslims and Jews

A top Israeli has visited the Temple Mount for the first time since Ariel Sharon's visit there three years ago helped spark the Palestinian uprising.

Israel said Internal Security Minister Tsahi Hanegbi and his police chiefs were checking the site ahead of the Muslim festival of Ramadan next week.

The Jerusalem site is sacred to both Jews and Muslims.

No incidents were reported during the visit but the day saw more violent deaths in the surrounding West Bank.

Israeli troops shot dead three suspected Palestinian militants, two in separate incidents in the town of Hebron and one in Qalqilya.

In the second incident in Hebron, soldiers opened fire after a gunman shot and wounded two Jewish settlers in the town.

'Provocation'

Mr Hanegbi toured Temple Mount - known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif - for about an hour unannounced.

SACRED TO MUSLIMS

Site of the Dome of Rock and Al-Aqsa mosques, where the Prophet is believed to have first prayed and later ascended into Heaven

SACRED TO JEWS Site of first and second Temples and believed to be rock on which Abraham offered his son as a sacrifice Holy site in pictures

He said he had not given warning of the visit in order to avoid demonstrations.

But officials from the Waqf - the Muslim authority which oversees the site - described the visit as a provocation.

"This is a provocative visit and an attempt to take over our responsibilities," said Sheikh Hussein al-Khatib, director of the Waqf.

Mr Sharon visited the site in September 2000, before he became prime minister, and the angry protests that followed escalated into the current Palestinian uprising.

After Mr Sharon's visit, the Waqf declared the compound out of bounds to non-Muslims but Israel re-opened it to Jews and tourists this summer.