Israeli occupation troops shot dead an armed Palestinian in a Gaza Strip  border zone on Saturday and imposed a curfew on the West Bank city of Hebron in a renewed occupation army crackdown following Israeli national elections. An Israeli occupation army source said occupation soldiers spotted an armed Palestinian approaching the Gaza border with Egypt near the volatile town of Rafah and opened fire. The man was carrying an assault rifle and ammunition clips, the source said.

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) identified the dead man as a 19-year-old member of the group, which has carried out attacks on Israelis in a 28-month-old Palestinian uprising for statehood.

In Hebron, occupation troops imposed a city-wide curfew as part of a sweep for Palestinian activists which began on Thursday. A Palestinian woman returning home from hospital was wounded when occupation troops enforcing the curfew shot at her taxi, residents said.

In Israel, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon  was set to continue talks on forming a governing coalition after his right-wing Likud party doubled its power to 38 seats in the 120-member parliament in Tuesday's election.

But he faces an uphill battle to create the national unity coalition with the center-left Labour Party which many Israelis crave as the country faces the uprising and a possible U.S. war on Iraq that could draw Iraqi missile attacks on Israel.

Labour chief Amram Mitzna has vowed to rebuild his shattered party, which lost more than one-quarter of its seats in parliament, as leader of parliament's opposition and offer an alternative to Sharon's hard-line policies on the uprising.

LIKUD URGES LABOUR TO JOIN COALITION

Israeli cabinet minister Tzipi Livni warned Labour on Saturday that its determination to stay out of government could pose an obstacle to ending more than two years of bloodshed.

"The political process (of peace talks) will come about only as long as we present a united and clear front and convince the international community so they stand with us...and place a clear responsibility on the Palestinians (to stop violence)," Livni told Israel Radio.

If Labour stays out of government "the Palestinians will think there are other options, that maybe they need to wait for the government to fall, and then we will be dragged into a long, exhausting period of terror," she said.

Sharon held talks on Friday with a prospective coalition partner, Yosef "Tommy" Lapid, pugnacious leader of the centrist Shinui party that finished third in the vote with 15 seats.

Lapid, who opposes state subsidies and military service exemptions for Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jews, has said he would not join a cabinet that includes their political parties but would strive for a secular coalition with Likud and Labour.

After the meeting, Sharon's office issued a statement saying the two men had discussed the possibility of setting up "the broadest coalition possible" and that Likud and Shinui negotiating teams would begin work.

President Moshe Katzav is expected next week to formally request Sharon form a coalition within a 28-day period. The prime minister could receive an extension of up to 14 days.

At least 1,811 Palestinians and 698 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian revolt against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza erupted in September 2000.

PHOTO CAPTION

Armed members of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade carry the body of Fayez Jaber, their local leader, during his funeral in the West Bank town of Tulkarem January 31, 2003. Jaber was killed in a military operation Thursday, in which undercover Israeli occupation soldiers disguised as Palestinians killed him and other two Palestinians and arrested 10 others. (Radu Sigheti/Reuter