JERUSALEM (Islamweb and News Agencies) - Israel said a Palestinian Resistance bomber blew himself up during an Israeli commando raid Thursday and the Palestinian Authority pledged to press ahead with its own roundup of militants despite internal opposition.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, speaking in Sweden, said the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian towns in the West Bank could be completed in the next few days.
In Washington, a State Department official appeared to dismiss speculation President Bush and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat would hold talks in the coming days on how to end a year of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The official said the most the United States envisaged at this stage was an ``accidental meeting'' or handshake between the two leaders at the U.N. General Assembly this weekend.
In the West Bank village of Baqa al-Sharqiya, a Resistance bomber deliberately blew himself up close to commandos searching for militants, Israeli security sources said. Two commandos were wounded. Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, the military wing of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, said in a statement that Muyad Salah Al-Din, 22, ``blew himself up when he reached his objective, an area where Israeli troops were gathered.''
In Gaza, Palestinian Authority intelligence chief Amin al-Hindi told Reuters he had ordered his forces to press ahead with arrests of militants and denied Israeli allegations that only low-level or inactive radicals had been detained so far.