Mid-East truce talks to resume

Israeli missiles destroyed this Palestinian police HQ

Israel and the Palestinians are planning to hold bilateral truce talks in the next few days, despite a weekend of heightened violence that left eight dead.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said that all preparations were in place for a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Only a venue was still to be decided.

A Palestinian man hands out sweets after the weekend violence

But Mr Arafat said no decision had been made on the meeting.

In the meantime, witnesses reported seeing at least 42 Israeli tanks moving around the West Bank city of Jenin, and helicopters and F-16 fighter jets flying overhead.

The website of the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that residents of Jenin went out to prepare blockades against a possible Israeli attack, while members of Mr Arafat's Fatah faction evacuated their offices.

Israel says Jenin is a hotbed of suicide bombers, including the Israeli Arab who killed himself and three Israelis in the northern city of Nahariya on Sunday.

Diplomatic efforts

European Union envoy Miguel Moratinos said negotiations were progressing for a meeting between Mr Peres and Mr Arafat, although he denied earlier reports that a meeting had already been agreed.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is said to have given his backing to the talks, which are expected to focus on the possibility of restoring a ceasefire and easing the blockade of the Palestinian territories.

It was made clear earlier on Monday that Israel had rejected a Palestinian proposal to hold the talks in Taba, Egypt - the location favoured by the Palestinians.

Mr Peres said he wanted the meeting to be away from the media spotlight.

Correspondents say this would make the Erez checkpoint on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip the most likely venue.

Word of the planned talks followed Israeli tank and helicopter attacks on Palestinian targets in the West Bank.

A Palestinian policeman was killed in one of the pre-dawn assaults, on the village of Tamoun, near Jenin.

On Sunday night, Israel conducted strikes on five other Palestinian security targets in the West Bank, as part of what Israeli radio reported as a government policy to intensify retaliation against Palestinian violence.

The attacks were in response to Palestinian violence on Sunday that included two suicide bomb attacks and a drive-by shooting.

Bloody weekend

The deadliest attack was in the northern coastal town of Nahariya.

The vehicle after the drive-by shooting

Three Israelis were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the train station.

For the first time, an Israeli Arab is thought to have carried out the bombing.

Israeli officials said papers found near his remains identified him as Muhammad Saker Habashi, 48, from a village near Nahariya.

A second suicide bomber later exploded his device near a bus at the busy Beit Lid intersection, near the central town of Netanya.

The bomber died and three Israelis were injured.

In another incident on Sunday , two Israelis were killed and three injured in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.

US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice condemned the bloodshed as "senseless" and said the Palestinians should do more to stop the violence.

Blame

The Israeli Government has accused the Palestinian Authority of doing nothing to stop suicide bombers.

But cabinet ministers are reported to have rejected an army request to set up a series of buffer zones around the West Bank.

The army plan envisaged making a strip of West Bank land next to Israeli territory off-limits to Palestinians.

The Israeli Government has however imposed a traffic ban on Palestinians using the Jordan Valley road in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority has rejected the Israeli allegations and issued a statement condemning all attacks on civilians as well as the subsequent missile strikes.