Attack on Egyptian envoy mars ME peace drive

Radical Palestinian Muslims yelling "traitor" assaulted Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher yesterday after landmark talks with Israeli leaders to try to revive a stalled peace plan.

Maher was rushed for medical checks after the attack at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque, overshadowing a meeting at which officials said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had hinted that Israel would welcome any truce by Palestinian militants.

Two of those Palestinian factions claimed responsibility for the killing of two Israelis in an ambush in the Gaza Strip. Security sources said one gunman had been shot dead in an ensuing firefight as tanks and helicopters swept into the area.

Militants have so far rebuffed Egyptian efforts to secure a complete ceasefire that could give a new push to a US-backed peace plan stymied by violence.

Witnesses said Maher was accosted, jostled and possibly struck by a mob shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greater). Television pictures showed an ashen-faced Maher struggling for breath as he was led from the melee by police and bodyguards.

"He felt a choking sensation and a little pressure in the chest," said Rivka Kaplan, presiding doctor at the hospital where he had checks.

Relations between Israel and Egypt have recently begun to improve after taking a dive over Israel's crackdown on a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000.

But some Palestinians have never forgiven Egypt for signing a peace deal with the Jewish state in 1979.

An Israeli police spokesman said Maher's attackers were from a fringe Islamic group called the Liberation Party.

A senior Israeli official said Sharon promised Maher at their meeting earlier in the day that if Palestinian militants agreed to a truce then Israel would "respond with quiet" even if it did not sign a ceasefire itself.

His comments appeared to go a step closer to what the militants want than previous messages from Israeli leaders.