Security tightened at Al-Aqsa Mosque fearing attack

Around 30 extra officers are being deployed around the site in the heart of the walled Old City while more closed circuit television cameras are being installed to keep a close eye on any suspicious activity, the sources said.

According to a report in Monday's Yediot Aharonot newspaper, the internal security service Shin Beth is monitoring a hardcore of some 500 people, adding that a number of militants were barred from entering the site last week.

The mosque compound, which is called Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) by Muslims, shelters the Dome of the Rock (Omar Mosque) and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The site is also revered by Jews as it was once the site of the Jewish temple, the holiest shrine in Judaism, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

Police have banned a rally called by the extremist Revava (Myriad) movement at the compound which had been planned for April 10, one day before Israeli premier Ariel Sharon meets US President George W. Bush in Texas.

The group is linked to the Kach movement, which advocates the expulsion of all Arabs from Greater Israel, or the biblical expanse of the Jewish kingdom which stretched from the Mediterranean to modern-day Jordan.