'Palestinian struggle will continue'

Clashes continue but on a reduced scale

A leading member of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction has said the Palestinian struggle will continue even if peace talks with Israel resume.

Marwan Barghouti, head of Fatah in the West Bank, said the Palestinians were willing to re-start peace talks but stopping the uprising could not be a condition.

The condition for negotiations to succeed is to continue the intifada

Marwan Barghouti

He said the intifada had two tracks - the main one of demonstrations and a second consisting of resistance, including armed action.

Mr Barghouti's comments came as Israeli troops shot and killed a man in the West Bank town of Ramallah, and as the Islamic militant group Hamas issued a statement calling for "more painful blows" against the Israeli army and Jewish settlers "until the occupation is defeated".

The Israeli army admitted shooting a Palestinian, claiming that he was armed.

However, witnesses said the dead man was an electrician, and that troops may have mistaken his drill for a gun.

There were unconfirmed reports that a second Palestinian had been shot dead at the Eretz crossing between Israel and the Gaza strip.

But the Israeli army denied it had been involved in an exchange of gunfire at this location.

Diplomatic moves

There have also been four more funerals in the West Bank and Gaza of Palestinians killed in earlier incidents.

There have been more funerals in the West Bank and Gaza

In a diplomatic move, the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, spoke to President Bill Clinton about the planned visit by a US-led committee looking into the causes of the current unrest.

Israel radio said the committee could arrive in the region in about two weeks.

An international fact-finding mission was a key Palestinian demand at a Middle East summit hosted by Mr Clinton at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in October.

The BBC's correspondent in Jerusalem, Nick Childs, says Israel had sought to delay the start of the investigation, saying violence must stop first.

But, he says, Mr Clinton wants to press ahead with it as a confidence-building measure.

Mr Barak has put forward new proposals to revive peace talks, but these have been rejected by the Palestinians.

The Israeli leader, who is trailing his right-wing opponents in the opinion polls, floated the idea for a partial peace deal with the Palestinians on Thursday.

The beleaguered Mr Barak is widely regarded as needing some kind of peace deal to have any chance of leading his Labour party to victory in early elections.