Recriminations over Sharon's remarks and an incident in which Israeli troops killed two Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip overshadowed international efforts to persuade the United States to resume high-level mediation in the conflict.

Sharon blames Arafat for failing to rein in militant groups during the 16-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. But their animosity goes back decades, including to Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

"In Lebanon it was agreed that Arafat would not be eliminated. To tell the truth, I'm sorry we didn't eliminate him," he told the Israeli newspaper Maariv.

Sharon directed the invasion of Lebanon as defense minister, sending tanks and troops to the outskirts of Beirut where they bottled up Arafat and his PLO fighters before an internationally brokered deal led to their evacuation by sea.

His remarks drew angry condemnation from Palestinian officials, who have accused Sharon of trying to carry out a decades-old vendetta to remove Arafat form the scene.

"I think this reflects what has been always said -- that Sharon is trying to finish what he began in 1982," cabinet member Saeb Erekat said. "And for prime ministers to announce openly their gangster intentions is a reflection of what kind of government we're dealing with."

Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, whose country currently holds the European Union's presidency, condemned Sharon's comments.

"If they correspond to what Prime Minister Sharon has said, I must say that I deplore them and of course they deserve our rejection," Pique told reporters in Madrid.

Government spokesman Raanan Gissin said Israel had no plans to oust or kill Arafat, although it has used tanks and troops to confine him to his West Bank headquarters. "Today Israel's policy is not to harm him personally," Gissin said.

VIOLENCE IN GAZA STRIP

Fresh violence erupted shortly before Middle East envoys from the United Nations, the European Union and Russia were due to meet U.S. officials in Washington to discuss the conflict.

Israeli forces killed two Palestinian gunmen from the Islamic militant group Hamas who ambushed a convoy headed for a Jewish settlement in the southern Gaza Strip.

The gunmen detonated a roadside bomb as a truckload of Thai workers passed and then opened fire on troops in the convoy, the army said. Soldiers shot the men dead. No one in the convoy was hurt.

Shortly after the attack, mortar shells hit a settlement in the Gush Katif bloc, injuring one Israeli. Palestinian witnesses said Israeli forces entered the nearby Khan Younis refugee camp and detained 10 Palestinians at a Gaza Strip checkpoint.

Palestinian militants have carried out a series of deadly attacks to avenge Israel's killing of militant leaders. Arafat says his ability to rein them in is limited by Israeli blockades and raids which he says undermine any peace efforts.

In the Palestinian-ruled city of Ramallah, 2,000 mourners, some firing guns in the air, marched behind an empty coffin in honor of Wafa' Idrees, a 28-year-old medic who became the first woman to carry out a deadly bombing against Israelis.

The explosion in Jerusalem on Sunday killed one person and injured more than 100. It was unclear whether Idrees detonated the bomb herself or was killed by a faulty fuse. Her remains have yet to be turned over to her family for burial.

At least 826 Palestinians and 249 Israelis have been killed in the uprising that erupted in September 2000.

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