The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, put a positive spin on his lightning trip to Europe, where leaders were less than sympathetic for his policies on the Palestinian intifada.
"Those who think Europe is a lost cause for Israel are wrong," Mr Sharon told reporters in Tel Aviv after returning from his 36-hour visit, while acknowledging he had not seen eye-to-eye with the leaders of Germany and France.
"It's natural that we didn't agree on everything but the main issue was to get the Israeli position understood, and I think I put it forward very clearly," Mr Sharon said.
The French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, warned Mr Sharon not to try to "weaken" the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, while the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, reaffirmed European support for implementing the Mitchell commission plan. The international community has urged the two sides to end the fighting while peace talks are prepared. But the Israeli security cabinet has given the army the green light to resume targeted attacks on suspected Palestinian militants.
Mr Arafat's Fatah movement earlier yesterday accused Israel of trying to assassinate one of its members, a 22-year-old man whom they said was shot in the back in the West Bank by an Israeli soldier.
Three Palestinian militants were killed on Sunday when an Israeli helicopter destroyed their car with a barrage of missiles.
Mr Sharon, in his visit, had hoped to isolate Mr Arafat diplomatically and win support for his stance on combatting the nine-month-old intifada but instead found himself urged to restrain his forces.
He met the French Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, yesterday at the end of his trip to Paris and Berlin.
Officials from Mr Jospin's office said that he had expressed French concerns that Mr Sharon's refusal to end attacks on Palestinian targets was damaging chances of restarting the peace process.
Mr Sharon was unrepentant after President Chirac's rebuff, again calling for European pressure on Mr Arafat and saying he must be isolated "since Israel will not negotiate under the violence and terrorism that he refuses to end".
Israel is under particular pressure over its policy of "active defence", the assassination of Palestinian militants, a tactic which UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, condemned as a breach of human rights.
Mr Sharon said he had explained to Mr Chirac that the policy, which was reaffirmed by the Israeli cabinet on Wednesday, was designed to "intercept terrorists preparing attacks" and said he had "given concrete examples".
David Horovitz reports from Jerusalem: On a day that saw two Palestinians badly hurt in clashes with Israeli troops in Hebron, two international human rights groups yesterday called for the deployment of international monitors to try to prevent Israeli and Palestinian human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza.
Issuing their joint call, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said that most of the more than 470 Palestinians who have died in clashes since the intifada broke out last September had been killed unlawfully by Israeli troops whose lives were not in danger, and that most of the 120 Israelis who have been killed were civilians who were deliberately targeted by armed Palestinian groups.
Reuters reports from New York: Jewish groups angrily accused the United Nations yesterday of covering up the existence of a videotape that Israel believes may shed light on a Hizbollah kidnapping of three of its soldiers last year on the Lebanese border.
The three soldiers were kidnapped in October, several months after Israel withdrew from a zone it had occupied in south Lebanon for 22 years. UN diplomatic sources say the videotape shows the kidnapping scene, including evidence the abductors may have disguised themselves as UN troops.