Israel said Thursday it will allow U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni to meet with besieged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah compound where he has been trapped since last week -- but insisted its military operation against Palestinian militants will continue.
Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials said Zinni plans to meet with Arafat on Friday.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had vowed to keep Arafat isolated from contacts with the outside world as part of Israel's military offensive on the West Bank. Two senior EU delegates cancelled a meeting with Sharon and left the region after being denied access to Arafat.
Israel's announcement followed President Bush's declaration Thursday he would send Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Middle East on a new peace mission.
"This is a conflict that can widen or an opportunity we can seize," Bush said in a Rose Garden statement with Powell at his side. "And so I've decided to send Secretary of State Powell to the region next week to seek broad international support for the vision I've (laid out) today."
Powell is expected to leave over the weekend. His first stop will be in Madrid where he will attend a U.S.-E.U. summit. U.S. officials say Powell's traveling party is considering stops in Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Israel and the Palestinian territory for the Middle East wing of the trip.
Arafat, through, his chief negotiator Saeb Erakat, said he is "committed" to the peace process and said he supports Bush's efforts to end the conflict "without conditions," an official PNA statement said.
Erakat says more than 80 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its military operation last Friday.
Bush Thursday called on Israel to end its incursions into Palestinian-controlled territory and withdraw from towns it has recently occupied.
Israel's intensified action, which Sharon has described as an "uncompromising war," began last week after a spate of suicide attacks against it.
Intelligence Col. Miri Eisin told reporters they have removed two truckloads of documents from Arafat's compound. Eisin produced two, which, she said, bear Arafat's signature authorizing payments of hundreds of dollars to people involved in terror attacks.
Minister Dan Meridor told reporters the documents show
Arafat's "direct link to the terror attacks, to financing them, a direct link that cannot allow for any deniability. Mr. Arafat is running a terror organization. He is the head of a terror organization. He is quite deeply involved in paying checks and money to terrorists." Meridor offered to show the U.S. intelligence "any document they want" to examine.
As part of its action, Israel seized key West Bank towns, detained 1,100 suspected terrorists and found caches of arms and bomb producing plants. Israeli forces also confined Arafat to his Ramallah headquarters by surrounding the building. Israel has said Arafat will not be harmed.
Bush said Powell would work to implement U.N. Res. 1402; an immediate cease-fire; an end to terror, violence and incitement; a withdrawal of Israeli troops from all Palestinian cities; and implementation of the Tenet and Mitchell plans.
The U.N. resolution, passed March 30, calls for an immediate Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and an end to terror attacks.
The Mitchell plan calls for an immediate, unconditional cease-fire, a cooling-off period followed by confidence-building measures and an eventual resumption of peace negotiations.
The Tenet plan says Israel and the Palestinian Authority would immediately resume security cooperation, enforce "strict adherence" to a cease-fire and "move aggressively" to prevent attacks from their areas. The plan was supposed to create conditions for implementing the Mitchell recommendations.
Powell will be the most senior U.S. official to visit the region in recent days. Gen. Zinni, the U.S. envoy to the region, has been trying to broker a cease-fire between the two sides. Vice President Dick Cheney also was in the region in late March.
The U.S. decision to increase its role came as a European Union team arrived in the Middle East to try to persuade authorities to halt the escalation of violence.
The Israeli military said Thursday it had finished its takeover of Nablus, the West Bank's largest city. Troops reoccupied two other Palestinian towns, Jenin and Salfit. They also penetrated the Jenin refugee camp. Ramallah, Tulkarim, Qalqilia and Bethlehem also have been occupied.
The commander of the Israeli forces in the Qalqilia -Tulkarim area, Brig. Gen. Tal Ruso, indicated they were trying to reach as many "terror centers" as possible before world pressure forces them to halt.
(Reported by Saud Abu Ramadan in Gaza , Joshua Brilliant in Tel Aviv and Eli Lake in Washington)
