Israeli occupation forces shot dead a Palestinian man who approached an occupation army post near the Egyptian border and rounded up more than a dozen resistance men in the West Bank and Gaza, military sources and witnesses said on Tuesday.The fresh violence coincided with discussions in the United States between Israeli and U.S. officials on a peace blueprint and a plan for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to send a delegation to London for talks on peace next month.

The diplomatic moves are intended to end more than two years of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed which could complicate any U.S. decision to launch military operations in the Middle East against Iraq, accused of developing weapons of mass destruction.

Palestinian witnesses said occupation troops shot dead a 22-year-old man who approached an Israeli-controlled zone along the border between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip late on Monday. Neighbors said he was mentally ill and ignored their shouts to turn back.

Israeli military sources said the man ran toward the occupation army post and occupation soldiers opened fire, suspecting he had explosives.

The occupation army said it arrested at least 13 resistance men overnight in the Gaza Strip and five West Bank Palestinian-ruled cities, Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah, Tulkarm and in the Jenin area.

Palestinian witnesses said occupation soldiers surrounded a building in Bethlehem and peppered it with gunfire, demanding those inside come out. Two men arrested belonged to al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group linked to Arafat's Fatah faction, they said.

The occupation army has seized control of most West Bank cities and imposed curfews after Palestinian resistance attacks.

At least 1,724 Palestinians and 670 Israelis have been killed since the uprising for independence began in September 2000.

HAWK IN WASHINGTON

The peace blueprint came up at talks on Monday in Washington between Secretary of State Colin Powell and new Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, a leading hawk who has advocated expelling Arafat from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Powell is to discuss it on Friday with a "Quartet" of mediators from the European Union , Russia, the United Nations and the United States who aim to devise a timetable to peace in the troubled region.

Arafat urged the Quartet to complete the blueprint, which envisages an end to violence and creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. He also accepted British Prime Minister Tony Blair's offer on Monday to send a team to London for talks.

"I am inviting leading Palestinians to come to Britain in January to a conference along with members of the Quartet and other countries from the region," Blair told the British parliament.

Blair's invitation was an apparent attempt to move the Israeli-Palestinian conflict higher on a world agenda dominated by possible war on Iraq. Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian cabinet minister, told Reuters Arafat "appreciated" Blair's letter.

U.S. officials have discouraged expectations that the meeting of mediators this week will yield a definitive document. Israel has asked Washington to move slowly in the run-up to Israeli elections on January 28 for a new prime minister.

Blair said on Monday the talks would discuss progress on Palestinian reform and how the international community can help.

In his remarks to parliament, Blair acknowledged that in the short-term, any progress toward peace would be limited by the Israeli election next month that opinion polls show Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's right-wing Likud party will win.

Sharon says he accepts the "road map" in principle but its implementation would depend on an end to Palestinian "terror, violence and incitement," a reference to resistance bombings.

Israeli officials accuse Arafat of complicity in attacks on Israelis, an allegation the Palestinian leader denies.

In the Gaza Strip, at least a thousand supporters of the Muslim resistance group Hamas shouted slogans of revenge for Israel's killing on Monday of two Hamas resistance men .

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian youths hurl stones towards Israeli occupation army jeeps during clashes in the West Bank city of Nablus on December 16, 2002. Violence continued unabated in the Gaza Strip against the backdrop of the apparent attempt by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to move the Israeli-Palestinian conflict higher on a world agenda dominated by possible U.S. war on Iraq. (Abed Omar Qusini/Reuter