Britain said on Thursday Israel had rebuffed Prime Minister Tony Blair's personal plea to let Palestinians attend Middle East peace talks in London next week but vowed that dialogue would go ahead "in one form or another." In a sign of growing tension, Blair's spokesman said Israel had delivered its response after postponing a planned meeting between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Britain's ambassador.

The diplomatic stand-off follows a testy telephone call between Israeli and British foreign ministers on Monday in which, according to a transcript, each said the other's stance on the conference was hindering prospects for peace.

Britain had hoped talks bringing together Palestinians with the "quartet" of UN, EU, Russian and U.S. negotiators, could be a step to reviving Israeli-Palestinian talks stymied by two years of violence. But Israel said talk of reform was futile as long as President Yasser Arafat still ran the Palestinian Authority.

On Monday, after Sunday's twin resistance bombings which killed 22 people in Tel Aviv, Sharon said Palestinians would not be allowed to travel to London.

"We are committed to the dialogue going ahead in some form," Blair's spokesman told reporters. "And it will go ahead in some form as soon as possible and within the original timescale."

The spokesman did not elaborate and refused to comment on British media reports that Blair might try and get round the travel ban by holding a conference by video phone.

EFFORTS TO REVIVE PEACE TALKS

Blair, who lead's Britain's Labour party, later met Israeli Labour leader Amram Mitzna, Sharon's main challenger in a January 28 election.

Mitzna told reporters after the talks that he and Blair had agreed on the need to revive Middle East peace talks -- a move Sharon rejects while Israeli-Palestinian clashes continue.

However, Mitzna offered little support for Blair's planned talks next week: "I can understand why Prime Minister Sharon is taking such a decision after the attack in Tel Aviv just a few days ago. It is very difficult...to back Palestinians that are not even trying to fight terrorism."

Blair has set great personal store behind re-floating the peace process since touring Middle Eastern capitals after the September 11 attacks on the United States, when he was left in no doubt about the strength of Arab feeling on the issue and the degree of dissatisfaction with Israel and its main U.S. ally.

Presenting himself as a conciliator in a speech on Tuesday, Blair urged other nations, including Arabs, to back the United States' hard line against Iraq but also made an implicit appeal to Washington to do more to ease the plight of the Palestinians.

PLO LEADERS REVIEW DRAFT OF CONSTITUTION

In Ramallah, the PLO Central Council on Thursday reviewed a first draft of a Palestinian constitution, but made no decisions because three-fourths of the 128 members were kept away by an Israeli travel ban.

A constitution is a key element of Palestinian reforms sought by the United States.

At the PLO session, one of the most significant changes put forth in the 222-article draft constitution - which is to form the basis for a future Palestinian state - is the addition of a prime minister to head the government, said Planning Minister Nabil Shaath, head of the committee writing the draft. The exact relationship between the prime minister and the president are to be discussed further, Shaath said.

In recent months, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has come under growing pressure to share power and appoint a prime minister who would take oversee the day-to-day running of the Palestinian Authority. Arafat has resisted the idea, promoted by the United States and reform-minded Palestinian legislators.

The draft does not address two key issues - the borders of a Palestinian state and the fate of 4 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants - but declares Jerusalem the future capital of a Palestinian state. All three issues would have to be settled in a future peace agreement with Israel.

The document, drafted by Palestinian, Arab and European experts, also contains articles on civil rights and the separation of powers.

Thursday's meeting was little more than symbolic defiance of the Israeli travel ban, with only 30 of the council's Ramallah members showing up.

A majority of the PLO Central Council members have to be present to make a decision. The council is a mid-sized decision-making body, bigger than the Palestinian legislature - many of whose members also belong to the PLO Central Council - and smaller than the Palestine National Council.

Shaath said the plan was to have the PLO Central Council endorse a first draft, present the constitution to the public for debate, and then send a final version back to the council.

ISRAEL ALLOWS UNARMED PALESTINIAN POLICE TO PATROL JENIN STREETS

In Jenin, Palestinian police in uniform will begin patrolling streets soon, said Palestinian governor Haider Ershaid. He said Israeli officials agreed to their deployment, as long as they are unarmed.

The Israeli occupation army said 100 police would be allowed to patrol in Jenin, and similar arrangements would be made in the other towns and cities.

Israel has controlled Jenin, at the northern edge of the West Bank, and most other main Palestinian population centers in the West Bank since an incursion in mid-June that followed resistane bombings in Israel.

ISRAEL TURNS OVER CAPTURED SYRIAN AND BODY OF ANOTHER TO UN

Also Thursday, Israel turned over to the United Nations a captured Syrian and the body of another man, officials said Thursday, a day after a shooting incident near the cease-fire line between the two countries.

A statement released by a U.N. force that oversees the disengagement agreement said that both sides were cooperating with a U.N. probe into the incident. The Israeli occupation army later confirmed the victim's body had been handed over and the prisoner was transferred later.

Although the two countries are bitter enemies, their border has been relatively quiet since Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war. The last armed cross-border infiltration into Israel occurred 15 years ago.

Syria denied that Wednesday's incident was an infiltration and said Israel had violated the cease-fire accord. Damascus said two policemen and a civilian were trying to take water from the Yarmouk River that runs through the demilitarized zone.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, center, and Salim Zanoun, left, head of the Palestinian National Council pray before a session of a Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Central Council meeting at his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Thursday Jan. 9 2003. The Council reviewed a first draft of a Palestinian constitution, but made no decisions because three-fourths of the 128 members were kept away by an Israeli travel ban. Others are unidentified security officers. (AP Photo/Hussein Hussei