The Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, on a two-day visit to Rome, yesterday repeated the need for international observers in the region during meetings with both Pope John Paul and the Italian prime minister, Mr Silvio Berlusconi.
At the end of a 25-minute private audience in the Pope's summer residence of Castelgandolfo, a Vatican statement said the Pope had called for an end "to all and every violence, be it a military strike or reprisal". The Pope went on to urge President Arafat to restart the stalled peace process, since dialogue "represents the only possible hope of achieving peace in the region".
The Vatican has long supported the Palestinians' right to their own homeland, while at the same time calling for the territorial integrity of Israel to be respected.
Mr Arafat said he was committed to implementing a US-brokered ceasefire that has never really taken effect. "From Rome I call to stop all forms of violence, including bombardments, and the dispatch of international observers immediately," he said.
Earlier, Mr Arafat had an hour-long meeting with Mr Berlusconi during which he appealed to the Italian leader, in his capacity as current president of the G8 group of nations, to get "everything possible done" so that monitors might be sent to the Middle East.
At the G8 summit in Genoa two weeks ago, the eight leaders endorsed the idea of deploying monitors in an attempt to defuse the current explosive situation.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian man was sentenced to death in a Palestinian security court yesterday for collaborating with Israel.
Ahmed Abu Issah (50) became the fourth Palestinian to be convicted, for providing Israel with intelligence information about Palestinian militants, and sentenced to death, since an Israeli attack on an office of Hamas on Tuesday left eight Palestinians dead.
Issah was convicted of giving Israel information about Salah Darwazeh, a Palestinian militant who was killed last week in Nablus when his car was obliterated by Israeli missiles.
Israel yesterday kidnapped a Palestinian man near Nablus whom it believed to be a key member in Mr Arafat's Fatah party. The man was released later as the Israelis had mistaken him for someone else.
Meanwhile, an attempted Palestinian bomb attack on a bus near the northern town of Beit She-an was foiled yesterday.
A Palestinian man, Firas Abdel Haq (23), was shot dead yesterday near Nablus by Israeli troops, Palestinian medical staff reported. An Israeli army spokesman said that soldiers had fired on two Palestinians trying to plant a bomb.