JERUSALEM (Islamweb & Agencies) - Secretary of State Colin Powell holds new talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Friday to build on an agreement on a week-long test for compliance with a U.S.-brokered truce.
Powell and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said they had agreed in a session on Thursday on a seven-day-long test period for Palestinian compliance with the truce, battered by 15 deaths in as many days.
Powell, in the region to find ways to bolster the shaky truce, said he had discussed the ``timeline'' with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in talks earlier in the day.
The diplomatic drive came against a background of more bloodletting -- this time the slaying of a 27-year-old Jewish woman settler by Palestinian Resistance men in the West Bank.
The death brought to seven the number of Israelis killed since the truce went into effect on June 13. Eight Palestinians have also been killed.
Sharon, a longtime proponent of settlements, is under huge pressure from his right-wing constituents to break the cease-fire and hit back. Instead, he agreed with Powell to try the strength of the Palestinian's commitment to the cease-fire.
``When total quiet prevails there will be seven test days to see how the Palestinian Authority fulfils its obligation and, after the seven-day-test, a cooling-off period of six weeks.''
Powell is hoping quiet will prevail long enough for the two sides to move on to the next phases of the cease-fire proposal -- a cooling-off period, confidence-building measures and eventually a renewal of peace talks.
Neither Powell nor Sharon, who had previously insisted on 10 days of total calm, said when the seven-day period would start.
In Ramallah on Thursday, one Palestinian official who attended Powell-Arafat talks told correspondents: ``Powell asked Arafat for a complete week of cease-fire so the Americans can step in to implement the rest of the Mitchell recommendations.
``Arafat agreed...'' the official said. (Read photo caption below)

ARAFAT REFUSES TO ARREST MILITANTS
In a briefing to foreign journalists on Thursday, Arafat repeated his opposition to demands to arrest militants under a cease-fire brokered by U.S. CIA director George Tenet.
Hours after his talks with Powell, Arafat made clear he would not bow to the calls to hunt down members of the militant Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
The groups are behind a spate of bombings that have killed scores of Israelis. In all, about 600 people, mostly Palestinians, have died in nine months of revolt against Israeli occupation.
The latest killing at the Ganim settlement near the Palestinian-ruled city of Jenin shone a spotlight once again on the 200,000 or so Jewish settlers living among three million Palestinians on land Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war.
A Palestinian armed group affiliated with Arafat's Fateh faction took responsibility for the attack.
But Arafat issued a statement saying he had ordered the Palestinian Authority's security forces to arrest the killers.
The settlements are illegal under international law. Palestinians consider them a legitimate target in their uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.
The peace blueprint, drawn up by an international panel led by former U.S. senator George Mitchell, calls for Israel to freeze construction in Jewish settlements as a confidence-building measure.

``SOME KIND OF MONITORING''
Earlier, Powell raised the prospect of a deployment of outside monitors to observe implementation of the various stages of the peace plan.
He gave no details, but talk of sending monitors was sure to please the Palestinians, who seek the deployment of an international force to the region. Israel is strongly opposed to any significant foreign presence in the territories.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters later that Powell's comment was a restatement of long-standing U.S. policy and was in no way an endorsement of Palestinian demands.
Despite the violence, Peres said he might meet Arafat this weekend, when both are due to attend a conference in Lisbon.
In all, 466 Palestinians, 119 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed in nine months of violence.
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PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat arrives with Secretary of State Colin Powell to address journalists after talks in Ramallah June 28, 2001. Powell told Israeli and Palestinian leaders to seize the chance to end nine months of bloodshed offered by a shaky ceasefire and a U.S.-led plan to resume peacemaking. (Osama Silwadi/Reuters
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