Tanks back in Bethlehem after sniper kills soldier

Israel sent tanks into Bethlehem for the first time in more than six months yesterday after a soldier was killed near the Church of the Nativity. The city was placed under curfew and closed to journalists for several hours.

The tank incursion was launched while Israeli and Palestinian officials held talks aimed at securing an agreement for Israeli troops to withdraw from reoccupied Palestinian cities and hand back control to Palestinian security forces.

Bethlehem spent much of last year under military curfew. The city has been under the Israeli army's control since November, when the soldiers were ordered in after a spate of militant attacks.

The tanks moved in after Captain Shahar Shmul, 24, was shot dead by a Palestinian sniper on Tuesday night. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a left-wing militant group, said it had killed him.

In the Gaza Strip, two Palestinians trying to cross a fence surrounding a Jewish settlement were shot dead by Israeli soldiers yesterday. The Israeli army said they were planning an attack on the settlement.

* Israel will recall its ambassador from Belgium in protest at a Brussels court ruling reviving a genocide lawsuit against the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, diplomats said yesterday.

Belgium's supreme appeals court ruled that the survivors of a massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Israeli-controlled Lebanon in 1982 could proceed with the lawsuit once Mr Sharon leaves office and loses diplomatic immunity.