Nine die in Mid-East clashes

The Palestinian town of Beit Jala came under heavy Israeli fire

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak has warned of tougher army action following one of the worst days of violence since the crisis began five weeks ago.

Nine people - three Israeli soldiers and six Palestinians - died on Wednesday as battles raged in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In light of these serious incidents the army will act firmly but without getting drawn into adventurism

Ehud Barak

Mr Barak delivered his warning of a harsher response after holding three hours of emergency talks with his inner cabinet.

As the cabinet met, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat spent two hours in talks with former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres - with whom he shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize - but with no word of any progress towards peace.

The violence has now claimed some 160 lives - most of them Palestinian.

"The days ahead will be a test," Mr Barak said after his cabinet talks.

A Palestinian policeman was among six people to die in the village of El-Khader

"In light of these serious incidents the army will act firmly but without getting drawn into adventurism," Mr Barak said.

Israel Radio said the army had given ministers a list of proposed targets to hit.

The BBC's Barbara Plett in Jerusalem says it appears that one target may be Palestinian television broadcasters in Hebron, after reports said the army told staff in Hebron to evacuate their premises.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said two of the soldiers who died were hit during heavy fighting near Bethlehem, in the village of El-Khader.

Thousands attended as Gaza buried its dead - but more were then killed

Three Palestinians - a policeman and a civilian - were also killed in the fighting there.

The three other Palestinians died in the Gaza Strip - at least two of them after attending a funeral procession for Palestinians killed in earlier clashes.

The third Israeli casualty, a reservist, was killed during gun battles near the Palestinian-ruled city of Jericho, also in the West Bank.

Jerusalem bomb

Israel then launched helicopter rocket attacks on a Palestinian Authority building in the city.

There were also exchanges of fire around Beit Jala, outside Jerusalem, and reports of a bomb explosion in west Jerusalem in which one person was reported to have been slightly injured.

Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat talked for two hours

The increasing violence comes against a backdrop of renewed efforts to get some sort of talks back on track.

Mr Arafat is sending his senior negotiator, Saeb Erekat, to Washington for talks with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. According to a State Department spokesman, the two are due to meet on Friday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami was due to meet separately with Mrs Albright late on Wednesday.

The Palestinians have proposed sending a 2,000-strong unit of United Nations military observers to Gaza and the West Bank to help assure the safety of Palestinian civilians.

But correspondents say the US would certainly veto any force that did not have Israel's explicit consent.

Human rights 'violated'

In a separate development, human rights group Amnesty International has criticised Israel's use of "excessive force" in the crisis.

The group said violations of human rights during five weeks of violence could constitute war crimes.

The group also criticised Palestinians for firing on Jewish settlements and said they had a duty to prevent children from putting their lives at risk.