MIDDLE EAST:Plans were revealed yesterday for US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to visit the Middle East this month to try to promote peacemaking. The announcement came after undercover Israeli troops burst into a West Bank vegetable market in Ramallah, killing four Palestinians.
Troops exchanged heavy fire with Palestinian gunmen in the first major raid since the Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to try to ease tensions between the sides. Four Palestinians, all civilians, were killed and 20 wounded in the fighting.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said in a harshly worded statement that Israel's peace promises rang hollow in the light of the raid and demanded compensation for damage to shops and cars in Ramallah.
Condoleezza Rice will travel to the Middle East later this month to try to promote peacemaking, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said after they met yesterday. Asked if Dr Rice was optimistic about prospects for progress towards a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, Mr Solana told reporters: "I don't think that 'optimism' is the word. We have to stick to the word 'realism'."
In Gaza meanwhile, six Palestinians, including a senior security officer, were killed yesterday in a new wave of fighting between gunmen loyal to Hamas and those allied with Mr Abbas.
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, who met Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak just a few hours after the Ramallah raid, apologised for any civilian casualties, but said the raid was intended to protect Israel from terrorist attacks.
"Things developed in a way that could not have been predicted in advance. If innocent people were hurt, this was not our intention," he said.
The summit had been intended to push for new Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, but was overshadowed by the violence.
Standing next to Mr Olmert in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, Mr Mubarak condemned the raid. "Israel's security cannot be achieved through military force but by serious endeavours toward peace," he said.
Mr Abbas said Israel's assurances that it was striving for peace and security could not be believed. "The continued aggression will only lead to the destruction of all efforts aimed at realising peace," the statement said.
Mr Solana declined to say whether Dr Rice would try to set up a peace conference.- ( AP)