Fatal Tel Aviv stabbing hits fortnight-old truce

TEL AVIV - A Palestinian man stabbed to death one person and wounded two others in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv yesterday.

The attack could undermine a fragile truce and US-led peace plan.

The 23-year-old assailant was shot at by a security guard and arrested.

The attacker left a large, bloody knife on the ground after the stabbings - the first attack by a Palestinian in an Israeli city since militant groups announced a three-month truce on June 29.

The incident underlined the truce's fragility as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met British leaders in London.

It also overshadowed fence-mending talks in the West Bank between Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and President Yasser Arafat.

The attacker, from East Jerusalem, stabbed a security guard who prevented him entering the open-air Tarabin restaurant at 1.30am local time, police said.

He then stabbed two passersby as he fled along a promenade by the Mediterranean Sea. Another security guard shot him about 500m from the restaurant.

"The Palestinian was shot in his legs and is under medical care," said police commander Yossi Sedbon.

He did not say whether the dead person was male or female, or give the victim's nationality.

The truce by the main Palestinian militant groups has fuelled cautious optimism that a US-backed "road map" to peace will end 33 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

But some militant groups have pledged to ignore the ceasefire and sporadic violence has continued.

The road map, drawn up by the US, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union, sets out reciprocal steps to end the violence and establish an independent Palestinian state in 2005.

Sharon failed in London to convince Prime Minister Tony Blair or Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to cut Britain's ties with Arafat.

"We still have our differences with Britain on a series of issues, including Arafat," a senior Israeli official said after Blair hosted a private dinner for Sharon. But the official described the event as "an intimate meeting between friends".

Abbas has come under fire from Palestinians for failing to persuade Sharon to release more Palestinian prisoners. He threatened to quit last week after the criticism and after what Palestinian officials said were efforts by Arafat to weaken him.

The reformist Premier, appointed by Arafat in April under US pressure, declared an end to the rift after talks with the President in Ramallah yesterday.

- REUTERS