Three Palestinian cabinet ministers met Secretary of State Colin Powell and White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice on Thursday, pledging new efforts to end 22 months of Middle East violence.

But in fresh bloodshed yesterday, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian in the West Bank city of Tulkarm. The circumstances were not immediately clear.

Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Qalqilya detained Ibrahim Abdul Dahmas, described by the army as a senior militant of Hamas, an Islamic group behind dozens of suicide bombings. The army said three other militants were taken into custody.

The Palestinians and the United States remained at odds over US President George W. Bush's call in June for them to replace Arafat, their elected president, with new leadership. Palestinian ministers also sought a firm timetable to statehood.

In a nationally televised speech that political commentators said was aimed at shoring up his popularity after a surge in Palestinian attacks, Sharon called on Israelis not to give in to "feelings of helplessness."

"Between us and the goal (of peace) stands the gang of murder, terror and corruption of the Palestinian Authority," Sharon said in a televised speech.

Palestinians say that Sharon is not serious about peace talks, and is seeking to undermine Arafat and the Palestinian Authority.

Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, an aide to Arafat, answered in kind, calling Sharon and his government "a coalition of terror and a gang of killers." He said Sharon had made the speech with the talks in Washington in mind.

"He wanted to intimidate the Americans and to warn them against reaching any agreement with the Palestinian delegation," Abdel-Rahman said.

An opinion poll published yesterday in Israel's biggest newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, showed public confidence in Sharon's leadership had dropped by nine percentage points over the past month. Surveyed after Palestinian attacks that left 13 dead this week, 57 percent of those polled said Sharon was running the country well, compared with 66 percent a month earlier.

At the same time, 42 percent of respondents said they had no confidence in Sharon's leadership abilities, up from 32 percent in July, and 37 percent gave the prime minister a "poor" leadership grade compared to 27 percent a month earlier.

(China Daily August 10, 2002)