TEL AVIV, JERUSALEM

US Vice-President Cheney arrived today in Israel where he will meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the end of an 11-nation Middle East tour in which Israeli-Palestinian violence clouded his efforts to rally Arab countries to future U.S. moves in a global war against 'terror'.

A senior US official said Cheney had left open his schedule for a possible meeting with a Palestinian delegation, but no firm plans had been made.

Cheney is meeting US special envoy Anthony Zinni, who earlier on Monday chaired talks between top Israeli and Palestinian security officials.

A major breakthrough during Mr Cheney's visit is seen as unlikely - and Palestinian officials said they would boycott talks with him unless he agreed to meet their leader Yasser Arafat also.

General Zinni has not yet managed to broker a ceasefire. But Palestinian security officials said the two sides had agreed on an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas in the Bethlehem sector of the West Bank.

Monday's security meeting was the first such encounter between the two sides since the bloodshed escalated dramatically nearly three weeks ago.


Security talks Between Palestinians and Israelis

Israeli defence officials said the decision to convene the new security meeting with the Palestinians was made after lower-level talks on Sunday produced "positive results".

They are reported to be discussing how to achieve a ceasefire and the details of an Israeli army withdrawal from the autonomous Palestinian areas which it has reoccupied.

The Palestinian security chiefs for the West Bank and Gaza Strip - Colonel Jibril Rajoub and Mohammad Dahlan - are negotiating with Israeli internal security chief Avi Dichter and army officials.

Abed Rabbo said the Palestinians had agreed to the security meeting after receiving guarantees from Zinni the Israeli pullout would get under way.

Ben-Eliezer said the security chiefs would try to wrap up "the final details so that a pullout can take place tonight."

"If things go well, I expect there will be a good possibility that a cease-fire will be declared," Ben-Eliezer told reporters.

Israeli tanks and infantry still remain in the West Bank city of Bethlehem and its environs and, Palestinian security officials said, in some 20 percent of Palestinian Authority land in the Gaza Strip.