A halt to four and a half years of bloody conflict was called yesterday by Israel and the new Palestinian leadership, as both sides pledged to seize what Ariel Sharon declared to be an opportunity for "security, tranquillity and peace" in the Middle East.

ISRAEL AND the Palestinian leadership are planning to make joint ceasefire declarations after four-and-a-half years of armed conflict when their leaders meet at Sharm el Sheikh today, senior Israeli and Palestinian officials said last night.

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, yesterday issued his strongest warning yet that the state would use "all our power" against settlers resisting evacuation from Gaza. Mr Sharon offered maximum political to support to the army and police as they prepare to cope with possible violence and civil disobedience when 21 Gaza settlements are evacuated under the Prime Minister's Knesset-endorsed disengagement plan.

Mahmoud Abbas made an unabashed pitch to a boisterous rally of the Fatah faithful last night after angering Ariel Sharon's ministers by referring to Israel as the "Zionist enemy" for the killing of seven young Palestinians in Gaza.

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, yesterday personally expressed his "deep sorrow" to the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, after an Israeli tank crew killed three Egyptian policemen on the southern Gaza border.

Rejuvenated, perhaps, by his pivotal role as opposition leader in guaranteeing Ariel Sharon the parliamentary majority the Prime Minister's own deeply divided Likud party would otherwise deny him, Shimon Peres was optimistic when he met foreign journalists this week.