Earlier, Israeli troops reported killing a gunman who had tried to enter the Israeli town of Nir Am in the Gaza Strip. Troops also shot dead a 53-year-old Palestinian municipal worker going about his duties in the West Bank town of Nablus.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said the woman had been killed when a gunman raided the settlement of Mehora in the Jordan Valley in darkness after the end of the Jewish Sabbath.

She said troops had killed the gunman.

Israeli media said the woman and her husband had been sitting in a car outside their home when they were shot. The husband was seriously wounded and taken to hospital, while another person in the settlement was also wounded.

No Palestinian group immediately claimed responsibility.

In Washington, Central Intelligence Agency chief George Tenet met Palestinian Interior Minister Abdel Razzak al-Yahya for about 90 minutes at the agency's headquarters.

They were believed to have discussed a US plan to reshape Palestinian security services as a prerequisite for rapprochement with Israel after 22 months of violence.

A source close to the Palestinian delegation gave few details but said the Palestinians believed the talks had gone well.

Proposed reforms include the merger of different branches of the security services run by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, to make them more accountable and able to rein in Islamic militants responsible for attacks on Israelis.

Hamas Steps up Attacks

The Islamic group Hamas claimed the man seeking to infiltrate Nir Am in Gaza as one of its own. Hamas has stepped up its attacks since Israel killed its military commander in the Gaza Strip along with 15 other Palestinians in an air strike last month.

Though dedicated to Israel's destruction, Hamas recently hinted at its willingness to hold truce talks on condition that the Jewish state relinquish areas of the West Bank that it reoccupied after suicide bombings in June and stop its track-and-kill operations against senior militants.

Hamas's founder met Palestinian Catholic Patriarch Michel Sabbah in Gaza City on Saturday -- the first time the two have held talks -- and reiterated Israel had to make the first move.

"We cannot provide any initiatives at this time. This is not a time of initiatives. That comes when Israel returns our land, leaves and stops its aggression," Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told reporters.

The army expressed its regret over the killing of the Nablus municipal worker, who was driving an electrical repair van that was marked as authorized to travel in the city despite an Israeli curfew.

"This just goes to show how insufferable our situation is -- even those supposedly permitted to be out and about are at risk," Nablus Mayor Ghassan Shak'a said.

The army has reoccupied much of the West Bank, with curfews and closures causing widespread economic damage. Israel says the measures are needed to keep out suicide bombers.

Washington Talks

Palestinian officials began high-level talks in Washington on Thursday on ending the violence -- the first such contacts since President Bush sought to sideline Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in June and called for Palestinian reforms and democratization.

Under US and Israeli pressure, Arafat has promised security reforms and elections as preliminary steps toward reviving talks with Israel on creating a Palestinian state. The talks stalled in 2000 and the Palestinian uprising broke out soon after.

In his first public acceptance of foreign involvement in reform of his security apparatus, Arafat said on Friday that US, Egyptian and Jordanian officials would oversee the changes.

At least 1,496 Palestinians and 587 Israelis have died since September 2000 in violence linked to the uprising.

(China Daily August 11, 2002)