Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon canceled truce talks with the Palestinians today, despite world pressure to cool a year-long conflict as the United States tries to build an anti-terror coalition.
Israeli government officials said Mr Sharon vetoed plans by his Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, to meet Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat because anti-Israeli violence had not stopped after a cease-fire announced last Tuesday.
Palestinian cabinet minister Mr Nabil Shaath said that, in an effort to take the high ground, Mr Arafat and other Palestinian officials would still turn up to the meeting at the Gaza airport at 5 p.m.
"The venue of the meeting and the time was agreed between (Secretary of State Colin) Powell and President Arafat and Mr Peres last night. Now they (the Israelis) have to explain what they are doing," Mr Shaath said.
Mr Sharon's decision will be seen as another slap in the face to Mr Peres, whose plans to meet Mr Arafat and try to kickstart a US-backed talks-to-truce plan have been vetoed repeatedly by the right-wing leader of Israel's "national unity" government.
"Yasser Arafat did not pass the test of...fighting terrorism," Mr Sharon's spokesman Mr Raanan Gissin told reporters.
As examples, Israeli officials cited a mortar bomb attack on a Jewish settlement in Gaza Saturday and what they said was the failure of Palestinian authorities to detain a man wanted by Israel suspected of being involved in the killing of a West Bank settler last week.
Mr Jibril Rajoub, a Palestinian security chief in the West Bank, told reporters the suspect was under arrest and interrogation.
But the attacks provided ammunition for right-wing members of Mr Sharon's ruling coalition to pressure the prime minister - who called Arafat a terrorist in a CNN interview Friday - to scrap the talks.
Mr Sharon has demanded 48 hours of quiet as a condition for talks with Mr Arafat on cementing the five-day-old truce.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo responded angrily to news of the last minute cancellation.
"This is a gang, not a responsible government of a state," Mr Abed Rabbo said. "If Peres asks for a meeting next time, we'll have to ask him -- who do you represent? This shows you cannot trust any promise or agreement the Israelis make."
Mr Peres has been pushing to meet Mr Arafat, saying Israel owed Washington a debt of gratitude for decades of support and wanted to help it enlist Arab and Muslim states into a broad alliance after the September 11th attacks in the United States.