HIGHLIGHTS: Occupation Forces Remain Outside Refugee Camp||Washington's Mideast Three-part Approach Diplomacy Kicks Off||A New Jewish Settlement in East Jerusalem|| STORY: Israeli tanks and troops swept into the West Bank city of Jenin early on Tuesday, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said.

They said troops fired in the air as the tanks and armored vehicles rolled into the city but there were no immediate reports of clashes with Palestinian Resistance men. (Read photo caption)

The Israeli army did not immediately comment. It has raided Palestinian-ruled towns and cities almost daily in recent weeks following a resurgence of Palestinian bombings in a 20-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation.

Israel says it has carried out such raids to seek out militants blamed for the suicide bombings.

The witnesses said the troops had not entered Jenin refugee camp, which is adjacent to the city. The camp was the scene of heavy fighting in April during a more than one-month-long Israeli military offensive across the West Bank.

SHARON TO MEET BUSH

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will see President Bush in a hastily arranged meeting at the White House next week, just after Bush's weekend talks about the Middle East situation with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

Monday's announcement of Sharon's visit, which will be Bush's sixth meeting with the Israeli leader, came as U.S. envoy William Burns and CIA Director George J. Tenet were in the Middle East searching for new strategies to encourage Israel-Palestinian peace talks.

Mubarak, a crucial middleman in the move to bring peace to the Middle East, is to spend Friday and Saturday with Bush at his presidential retreat at Camp David, Md.

WASHINGTON'S THREE-PART APPROACH DIPLOMACY

In the region, Tenet is trying to strengthen Palestinian security, which has failed to halt attacks against Israel by Palestinian militants and was devastated by Israel's incursion into Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank last month. Burns is sounding out Arab leaders on how to bring democratic changes to the Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

Philip Reeker, the deputy spokesman at the State Department, said U.S. diplomacy had a three-part approach: establishing effective Palestinian security performance; renewing a serious political process that aims at a two-state solution; and responding to the Palestinian people's humanitarian needs.

Bush has questioned Arafat's commitment to the peace process and never has invited the Palestinian leader to the White House.

NEW JEWISH SETTLEMENT IN EAST JERUSALEM

Construction work began Monday on a new Jewish settlement next to the Arab locality of Jebl Mukaber in southeastern Jerusalem.

In the initial stage of construction, several hundred apartments are planned on the hilltop, which is to be called Nofei Zahav. Later phases are to include the installation of a cable car system and a six-story luxury hotel.

It is now universally accepted that a century of experience of Jewish settlement brought Palestinians financial ruin and frustrated aspirations for freedom.

Writing for 'The San Francisco Chronicle', George E. Bisharat, says, the conflict between Zionist Jews and Palestinians has always pivoted around land. In the late 1880s, Jews in Palestine (the land now divided into Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) numbered under 15,000 and owned negligible land. There was little strife between them and Palestinian Arabs.

This changed with the 19th century rise of Political Zionism, a movement among European Jews to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. In 1882, Zionist Jews set up their first settlement near today's Tel Aviv. Their displacement of Arab farmers, and unfolding design to control the country, stimulated the first hostilities with Palestinians.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Palestinian youth jumps over a burning tire during a small impromptu protest by a few dozen people designed to annoy Israeli army troops in tanks a few blocks away in the old town section of the West Bank city of Nablus, Monday, June 3, 2002. Since May 31, the Israeli army has virtually closed down Nablus, enforcing a round the clock curfew while, says Israel, wanted militants are hunted. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)