Israeli tanks and troops have withdrawn from positions surrounding the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah after three days of occupation.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s senior advisor, Nabil Abu Rudeina said "the Israeli army had evacuated the Muqataa area," Arafat’s battered headquarters.
"This withdrawal is the result of international efforts and notably those of Europe, as well as contacts made with the United States to end this siege," he said.
Soldiers were also seen leaving a number of buildings they occupied when they moved into the city, they said, but added a curfew was still in effect.
Israeli troops however are still encircling other West Bank towns after yesterday's violence where an eight-year-old Palestinian child was killed and two other boys wounded by Israeli army gunfire in southern Gaza City, and the death of a 15-year-old Israeli girl who died from her wounds after being injured by a suicide bomb.
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More than 60 Palestinians, including a Palestinian public prosecutor, the deputy leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a local chief of the Islamic Jihad group, have been taken prisoner in Ramallah since Israeli forces invaded on Monday.
The withdrawal comes in the wake of a visit to the US, by hardline Israeli leader Ariel Sharon, where he restated his belief that a Palestinian state was incompatible with the existence of Israel.
This most recent visit to the US by Sharon marked his sixth meeting with Bush who has yet to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Sharon met briefly with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London after a two-day visit to the United States, where he won warm support from President Bush.
A Downing Street spokesman said Blair had urged the hardline Israeli leader to quickly relaunch the Middle East peace process.
Meanwhile, following Sharon's sixth visit to Washington since taking office early last year, US officials said Bush would soon announce his next steps in the search to end the 20-month conflict which has claimed more than 2,000 lives and badly exacerbated regional tensions.