Powell unable to advance sagging ME peace plan

Powell met Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an effort to revive the US-backed peace "road map" as more bloodshed erupted, with a Jewish settler killed in the West Bank and three people wounded when Palestinian gunmen ambushed their car.

Hamas's military wing said it was responsible for the attack in a statement faxed to media in the West Bank. Two of the injured were elderly US citizens visiting relatives.

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In the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics and witnesses said Israeli troops killed a Palestinian gunman in an exchange of fire near a Jewish settlement. The army had no comment.

Powell's eight-hour stint of shuttle diplomacy gave him a chance to lean on both sides to fulfil commitments made at a June 4 summit in Jordan with President Bush, but it yielded no breakthroughs.

"We have to move urgently," Powell said after his talks Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. "We don't want time to pass without action taking place... We don't want terrorists to win."

US sources in Washington said later that Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, co-managing "road map" efforts with Powell, would come to the region next week for follow-up consultations with the parties.

US officials said Gaza, Hamas's densely populated stronghold and subject to repeated Israeli incursions and air strikes, was under discussion for possible transfer to Palestinian security control to advance the road map.

Major-General Amos Gilad, Israel's military coordinator in occupied territories, confirmed this in an Israeli television interview but said Palestinians "must take responsibility for fighting terror" first.

Powell pressed Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas not just to strike a cease-fire with Hamas and other militant groups but to eliminate their capacity to attack Israelis.

That would probably entail disarming and jailing them, a step Abbas is loath to attempt for fear of civil war.

Abbas told reporters after seeing Powell truce efforts would come to naught unless Israel halted incursions and blockades.

Militants also demand an Israeli release of prisoners as another condition for a truce and say any such deal would cover only civilians in Israel not settlers and soldiers in occupied territory -- leaving a Gaza pullout unlikely for the time being.