Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called today for an international summit to reconvene in Egypt to discuss a report by a US-led commission into seven months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Mr Arafat said the meeting should be held at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh now that the five-man team led by former US Senator George Mitchell had handed its report, said to be very critical of the Israeli handling of the crisis, to Israel and the Palestinians.
But the proposal was promptly rejected by an Israeli cabinet minister.
Both sides received draft copies of the document yesterday and are due to submit their comments before the final version is released.
"There must be an invitation to hold this summit which was attended by the US president, King Abdullah of Jordan, (U.N. Secretary General) Kofi Annan, European Union representative (Javier) Solana, the Israeli and Palestinian sides and hosted by (Egypt's) President Mubarak," Mr Arafat told reporters in Gaza.
But Israeli minister without portfolio Danny Naveh rejected the proposal on Israel's Channel One television.
"The time has arrived for Arafat to understand that he will not forward Palestinian interests by these means... the way for him to progress is with a cessation of fire and after that a return to direct negotiations with us," he said.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Mr Arafat agreed at a summit at the Egyptian resort in October to the creation of the commission to examine the bloodshed that began in September.
Mr Arafat was speaking on his return from a meeting with Mubarak at Sharm el-Sheikh during which they discussed the findings of the Mitchell report. He said he had also discussed the findings, which have not yet been made public, with Jordan's King Abdullah after his meeting with Mubarak.
Palestinian officials said that Arafat would convene a special meeting of his cabinet in Gaza later today to consider the Mitchell report.
Israeli political sources have said the document recommends that Israel halt the Jewish settlement building that Palestinians regard as a major impediment to the peace process.
But the sources said the report did not agree with a Palestinian demand that an international peacekeeping force be sent to the region.
Asked to respond to what Palestinians called the Israeli assassination today of an Islamic Jihad militant near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Arafat said: "Israel is not only threatening individuals but also threatening Palestinian leaders... Our people are greater and stronger than these threats and we will enter Jerusalem as liberators." Palestinians want East Jerusalem, captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war, as the capital of a future state.
Palestinian medical sources and witnesses said Israeli special forces had fired more than 20 bullets at Ahmed Khalil Esaa Ismail, 35, in the village of Ertass, close to Bethlehem. The Israel army said it had no record of an operation or disturbances in the area.
In a statement faxed to Reutersin Beirut, Islamic Jihad, which has been behind attacks that have killed scores of Israelis, said it would retaliate for the crime against 'our martyr'.