Arrests over US convoy attack

It is the first time US officials have come under attack during the intifada

Palestinian police have arrested at least three people in connection with the attack on a US diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

The suspected militants were detained at the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza.

However, a subsequent effort to apprehend another militant at the camp had to be aborted when supporters of the man traded fire with the security forces.

The suspected militants are said to belong to the Popular Resistance Committee - a militant splinter group from Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement.

Three US security personnel were killed, and a fourth was injured, when a roadside bomb was detonated as the US embassy convoy crossed from Israel into Gaza.

The Popular Resistance Committee is a group of local militias - including many disgruntled former policemen - set up months after the start of the intifada to defend Palestinian refugee camps from Israeli incursions.

They have denied involvement in Wednesday's attack - after an initial statement admitting it.

It is the first time personnel from the United States, the leading mediator in the Middle East conflict, have been killed in the three-year Palestinian uprising.

President George W Bush demanded strong action from the Palestinian authority in the wake of the attack - and blamed Mr Arafat for blocking reforms of Palestinian security forces.

Rafah link

The US embassy convoy was on its way to interview people for a scholarship in the US when it was hit.

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The American FBI has arrived in the region and begun an investigation.

All American citizens in the Gaza Strip have been advised to leave the area.

Earlier reports said up to five members of the Popular Resistance Committee had been arrested.

The group has carried out a number of attacks during the three-year-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.

Their strongest base is in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where Israel has left more than 1,200 Palestinians homeless in an ongoing counter-insurgency operation, says the BBC's Barbara Plett.

US spokesmen had indicated they viewed the raids as part of Israel's right to defend itself.

In a continuing incursion into the camp, Israeli forces killed a member of the Palestinian security forces and injured several others, including children, Palestinian sources said on Thursday.

The army says it is looking for and destroying tunnels used by militants to smuggle weapons from nearby Egypt.

Arafat under pressure

The United Nations and the European Union also demanded urgent action from the Palestinians following the attack on the convoy.

The Israeli army raid in the Rafah refugee camp has enraged Palestinians

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Arafat said the attack was a shameful, dirty and very serious act against friends of the Palestinian people - he has set up a commission of inquiry.

But EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said, through a spokesperson, that "condemnations and excuses will not do".

Mr Bush stopped short of threatening any specific action against the Palestinians, urging them to install "an empowered prime minister who controls all Palestinian forces - reforms that continue to be blocked by Yasser Arafat".