GAZA STRIP, Palestine

At least one Palestinian was shot dead and several were injured by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip overnight as senior officials from both sides mulled a US compromise deal in the search for an elusive truce.

The man was killed during an Israeli military incursion into Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said early Monday.

Senior Israeli and Palestinian officials have met for new security talks that could make or break a US envoy's hopes for a cease-fire as violence in the territories raged on unabated.

Yesterday, Israeli forces killed seven men, including four along the Jordanian border, a Palestinian policeman and an unarmed man in various incidents while gunmen shot dead an Israeli woman riding a bus on the West Bank.

The talks chaired by American envoy Anthony Zinni are aimed at halting 18 months of bloodshed that has claimed almost 1,600 lives and setting in motion a chain of events that could lead to a new, bold Arab peace initiative.

Israeli public radio said the Israeli-Palestinian security high committee convened this evening in Tel Aviv for the fourth session hosted by Zinni since he launched his latest peace mission on March 14.

With a truce in place, Israel has said it would lift travel restrictions on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat so he could hold talks with US Vice President Dick Cheney and attend a crucial Arab summit opening on Wednesday in Beirut.

The summit will consider a Saudi proposal to offer Israel normal ties in return for its pullout from occupied lands. But the initiative looks to be tainted without Arafat's presence.

Despite the high stakes, Cheney played down expectations today, telling CNN he had no plan to meet Arafat at this time. He chided the Palestinian leader for not trying hard enough to nail down a truce deal.

Cheney said Arafat had to "get actively into that (ceasefire) plan, actually implement and begin to make progress. ... But to date, they have not gotten to that point yet."

The Israelis have said they expected to take a decision today on whether they would allow Arafat to travel after keeping him penned up in the West Bank city of Ramallah for nearly four months.

Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian international cooperation minister, said after speaking with Arafat today that the chances of him attending the Beirut summit were only about 10 per cent.

But Shaath told reporters in Beirut, "This could change. It could change by Tuesday because of international pressures."