Lebanon border flares up

Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei told AFP yesterday that he would soon meet US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, following a new commitment by US President George W. Bush to the internationally-backed Middle East roadmap peace plan.

Two militants from the radical movement Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank refugee camp of Nur El Shams were killed when they resisted their arrest by Israeli troops, security sources on both sides said.

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An Israeli military spokesman said that two men being sought for taking part in anti-Israeli attacks were killed "after opening fire on a unit which had surrounded their house."

In nearby Nablus, Israeli troops swept the Old City for wanted militants and shot down an 18-year-old Palestinian on a roof, Palestinian medical and security sources said.

The Palestinians said the victim was a civilian but an Israeli spokesman charged that he was armed.

The army also said that a car loaded with 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of explosives was intercepted in the nearby village of Salem.

As the death toll for the three and a half years of Israeli-Palestinian bloodletting neared 4,000, the Jewish state's flashpoint northern border with Lebanon witnessed a fresh spate of violence.

The Lebanon-based Shia fundamentalist militia Hezbollah traded heavy fire with the Israeli army near the Shebaa Farms, a mountainous area seized by Israel from Syria in 1967 and now claimed by Beirut with Damascus' consent.

Hezbollah claimed to have ambushed and killed or wounded a number of Israeli soldiers who had crossed into Lebanon, but there was no immediate confirmation from Israel.

Meanwhile, the diplomatic front was dominated by the crisis sparked by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ailing "disengagement" plan, a package of unilateral measures which includes a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Its rejection by Sharon's Likud party put the premier in an embarassing situation at home and abroad, as it had received the unqualified backing of Washington.

The so-called "disengagement" plan also says that Israel should not have to accept the Palestinian refugees' right of return and provides for continued Israeli sovereignty over some West Bank settlements.