Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dismissed the Palestinian Authority today as a "gang of murder" that must be uprooted as the Palestinians began their highest-level talks with US officials in months.
Talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials on easing Israel's military grip on the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank broke up hours earlier and were quickly followed by new violence.
Israel sent tanks into the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya for the second successive day to hunt for militants. A 17-year-old Palestinian was killed while riding his bicycle as troops fired to disperse stone-throwers nearby.
Three other Palestinians were injured in the incursion. The army said nine suspected militants were arrested before Israeli forces left the town.
Israeli troops also demolished the West Bank family homes of four people suspected of involvement in suicide bombings - continuing a policy condemned by human rights groups.
"Between us and the goal (of peace) stands the gang of murder, terror and corruption of the Palestinian Authority," Mr Sharon said in a televised speech at Israel's National Security Institute.
"The only way to peace demands this gang of murder be uprooted from its political positions," he said.
Mr Sharon repeated calls for reforms of the Palestinian security forces and for transparent accounting of the Authority's use of funds from donor nations before a peace deal can be achieved.
He launched his attack as the Palestinians started their first high-level talks in Washington since US President George W. Bush delivered a speech in June urging Palestinians to sideline President Yasser Arafat in elections.
His speech echoed the demands Mr Bush made in June when he said the reforms were conditions for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
There was no breakthrough at this week's Israeli-Palestinian security talks, the first for months. But Israel said the sides agreed to another meeting early next week.
Palestinian officials said the talks, focusing on how the Israeli army might withdraw from some Palestinian-ruled areas in exchange for a crackdown on militants by the Palestinian Authority, were a failure because the Israelis reneged on terms offered earlier.