Israeli army lifts blockade on West Bank city

Israel's army said it was lifting its blockade on the encircled West Bank city of Jenin yesterday as an Egyptian envoy called on the Jewish state to do more to help revive Middle East peace talks.

Jenin, a hotbed of militants, has been surrounded for much of a three-year-old conflict. The latest closure was imposed after a truce declared by Palestinian factions collapsed amid further violence in August and forced negotiations to a halt.

The army said the removal of the closure was "in keeping with assessments of the security situation".

Israeli soldiers at checkpoints around the city, scene of heavy fighting in April 2002, said that roadblocks and tanks would be gone by this morning.

Israel is meant to ease restrictions on Palestinians under a US-backed peace 'road map' bogged down by persistent violence and the failure of either side to take promised steps.

Palestinians are supposed to crack down on militant factions while Israel freezes settlement growth on territory captured in the 1967 war and dismantles unauthorised outposts.

Jenin's Palestinian governor, Ramadan al-Batta, said the army's decision was made without any security coordination with his side and he feared this reflected a new Israeli unilateralism that would marginalise Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has told Palestinians that if they do not stop attacks and enter road-map talks within a few months, Israel will unilaterally draw security boundaries stripping them of some of the land they seek for a viable state.

Palestinians said several more protesters were injured by Israeli rubber bullets yesterday at the construction site of a huge barrier Israel is building in the West Bank which is expected to form a de facto border if Israel goes it alone.

Israel says the barrier of wire and concrete keeps suicide bombers out of its towns. Palestinians call it a land grab.