Representatives of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement launched fresh talks with Hamas aimed at securing a halt to the Islamic resistance group's attacks against civilians in Israel.Palestinian international cooperation minister Nabil Shaath stressed the importance of the two sides agreeing a common strategy in the face of the hardline right-wing coalition which will hold power in Israel until elections early next year.

But analysts expressed doubt that Hamas would agree to end its military operations within Israel at a time when Arafat has yet to win over all of his own Fatah resistance group to such a truce.

The Egyptian-sponsored talks opened at an undisclosed venue Saturday evening after a traditional iftar dinner breaking the daytime fast observed by Muslims during the month of Ramadan, sources close to the meeting told AFP.

The delegations, led by Fatah central committee member Zakaraia al-Agha and Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal, were due to begin detailed negotiations Sunday as Arab foreign ministers gathered in the Egyptian capital for an emergency meeting.

Arab League assistant secretary general for Palestinian affairs Mohamed Sobeih said that "resistance operations in Israel and relations between Fatah and Hamas" would top the agenda for the talks.

Shaath stressed the importance of the meeting and praised Egypt's role in organizing it.

"This dialogue will help us to unify in the face of the worst government in Israeli history which has no interest in peace but instead wants to press ahead with the occupation," the Palestinian minister said.

Officials from the two sides did not hide the difficulties of reaching common ground on an issue which continues to sharply divide Palestinians.

"We know it will be difficult to reach an agreement at the meeting's onset but the current situation and the challenges we are facing are such that they justify this dialogue, which will be a long one," said Fatah official Samir al-Mashrawi, whom Israel barred from attending the talks at the last minute.

"We need to be firm but we are going there with an open mind. Our brothers in Hamas told us they were in the same state of mind."

Gaza-based Hamas official Ismail Haniya agreed. "The reform of Palestinian institutions and the fight against the Israeli occupation will be at the centre of our debate. But the agenda is open and going into details would be premature," he said.

A previous European-sponsored dialogue came close to agreeing a halt to attacks on Israeli civilians in July but was broken off after the death of Hamas's military leader, Salah Shehade, in an Israeli air raid on Gaza City.

Hamas has claimed the majority of resistance attacks against Israeli civilians during the two-year-old Palestinian uprising and Fatah officials have expressed mounting concern that the tactic is losing the Palestinians the battle for world public opinion.

Arafat has repeatedly called on all Palestinian resistance groups to agree a halt to attacks within Israel, although he has yet to win over the whole of his own Fatah movement.

An armed offshoot -- the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades -- still advocates resistance bombings to ensure that Israeli civilians too pay the price of failing to resolve the Middle East conflict.

And opinion polls suggest that the resistance men have the backing of the Palestinian public.

A September survey found 64.3 percent of respondents supported resistance bombings with only 27.7 opposing them.

Analysts said that in the circumstances they considered it highly unlikely that the talks would lead to a truce by Hamas.

"I don't think the two parties will reach an agreement putting an end to resistance attacks, all the more so since Hamas has its own considerations and political programme," said Palestinian MP Imad Faluji, a former Hamas member.

"At best, this dialogue will lessen the tension between the two groups," said political commentator Hani Masri.

Israeli occupation Troops Pull Back to Outskirts of Jenin

Israeli occupation forces pulled back to the outskirts of Jenin on Sunday, two weeks after troops backed by heavy armor swept into the West Bank city in search of resistance men behind resistance attacks in Israel, witnesses said.

The occupation army left the city center a day after occupation soldiers in Jenin killed a senior Islamic Jihad resistance man blamed by Israel for 31 Israeli deaths, and ahead of the arrival on Monday of a U.S. diplomat on a mission to push a U.S. "roadmap" for peace.

The pullback and diplomatic moves overshadowed, at least for the moment, a rising political fever in Israel expected to reach a peak at general elections in late January.

Palestinian children attended school for the first time in two weeks in Jenin and parents went to their jobs, the witnesses said. Israeli snipers were no longer positioned on rooftops and tanks were gone from the streets.

An Israeli commander in Jenin told Occupation army Radio the "terrorist infrastructure in the city had been significantly hit." An occupation army spokesman declined immediate comment on the pullback.

Dozens of Palestinian resistance men have been rounded up by the occupation army in the offensive that followed a resistance bombing that killed 14 Israelis.

Residents said the occupation army had left houses commandeered during the October 25 incursion but remained on the edges of Jenin, cordoning off the city and banning entrance to residents of surrounding villages.

On Saturday, Israeli occupation troops killed Iyad Sawalha, head of Islamic Jihad's military wing in the northern West Bank, after a house-to-house hunt.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat , who has condemned recent resistance bombings as terror acts damaging Palestinians' cause for statehood, branded Sawalha's killing as a "crime" and Islamic Jihad vowed Israel would suffer for it.

On Saturday the resistance group claimed responsibility for the death of occupation army tracker Sergeant-Major Medin Gerifat, 23, who was killed while on patrol near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip .

The violence came as talks were held in Cairo between Palestinian resistance groups that had intended to discuss halting resistance attacks in Israel.

U.S. ENVOY TO ARRIVE ON MONDAY

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield was due in the region on Monday.

He was expected to discuss a U.S. peace "roadmap" that includes an end to armed Palestinian attacks, Israeli occupation army withdrawals from occupied Palestinian cities, mutual efforts toward a final peace settlement, and a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by 2005.

At least 1,651 Palestinians and 626 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian uprising for statehood erupted in September 2000.

Palestinians intend to respond formally to the peace proposal within days but Israeli government sources have said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon  was not likely to voice any opinion on the plan until after a leadership election in his Likud party.

The Likud primary election, which pits Sharon against his hawkish foreign minister, Benjamin Netanyahu , has been set for November 28, Israeli media reported.

On Tuesday, Sharon called a general election expected to be held in late January, after the center-left Labor Party bolted his ruling coalition in a dispute over funding for Jewish settlements on occupied land Palestinians want for a state.

The international community views some 145 settlements established on occupied land as illegal under international law. Israel disputes this.

PHOTO CAPTION

Members of Fatah's armed wing of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade