Palestinian security forces said on Monday they had arrested a Palestinian woman from the Gaza Strip who was planning a suicide bombing in Israel, a move likely to boost US-backed peace moves.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon opens the weekly cabinet meeting in his Jerusalem office on July 6, 2003, the same day the Israeli cabinet approved the release of Palestinian prisoners in a bid to bolster a US-backed peace plan and a truce declared by militants. [Reuters]

The arrest came after Israel made clear that any further withdrawal from Palestinian areas under a US-backed peace plan would depend on Palestinian security forces preventing attacks from areas in Gaza and the West Bank town of Bethlehem that were transferred to their control last week.

A spokesman for Maj. Gen. Abdel Razek al-Majaydeh, whose troops received control of the parts of the Gaza Strip left by Israel, said an 18-year-old woman was arrested near an area used by Palestinians to sneak into the Jewish state.

The spokesman said that forces started searching for the woman after she left a note with her family announcing her intentions to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel.

There was no immediate Israeli reaction to the arrest. Scores of Israelis have been killed in suicide attacks since the start of the 33-month-old Palestinian uprising for independence.

It was not immediately clear if the woman was affiliated with one of the three Palestinian militant groups that declared a three-month cease-fire last week halting attacks on Israel, or had been acting alone, the spokesman said.

TOUGH ISRAELI TERMS

The militants, along with Palestinian ministers, expressed disappointment on Sunday over the small fraction of Palestinian prisoners to be released under tough terms set by the Israeli cabinet.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that no prisoners "with blood on their hands will be released," and an Israeli official said that several hundred of the between 6,000 to 8,000 Palestinians held by Israel would be released in stages.

Palestinians jailed for orchestrating attacks and members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups will remain in jail, he added.

Palestinians seek freedom for all prisoners and Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr called the Israeli decision "insufficient."

In a telephone conversation with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath accused Israel of dragging its feet in implementing the "road map" peace plan, which calls for reciprocal steps leading to a Palestinian state by 2005.

A major prisoner release would boost the popularity among Palestinians of their reformist Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and help shore up the militant cease-fire, while a limited release could jeopardize the truce.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, groups that have killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, have said the suspension of their attacks was conditional on freedom for all prisoners.

In a meeting with Palestinian Security Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz linked Israel's handover of additional West Bank cities to a Palestinian crackdown on militants in areas under their control.

Dahlan seeks an Israeli withdrawal from three West Bank cities, including Ramallah and Hebron, a senior Palestinian official said.

Palestinians have complained that the Israeli pullback in Bethlehem, which left forces encircling the city, was merely symbolic. In a gesture that appeared an attempt to mollify the Palestinians, the army said it would be allowing into Israel starting Monday 3,000 workers and merchants from Bethlehem.

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