Israel Radio reported that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has advised U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer that he will not be able to visit Washington this week due to the security situation in Israel, although Sharon's office said the trip would be rescheduled in the near future.

Some Israeli correspondents speculated that the delay would make it possible for Sharon to first hear Secretary of State Powell's long awaited Middle East speech at the United Nations before coming to Washington.

Sharon said that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has not yet fulfilled his obligations in arresting Palestinian militants. Consequently, Israel has refused to withdraw from additional Palestinian cities that IDF troops surrounded after the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi.

The IDF withdrew last week from Bethlehem and

"There are several settlements which are drawing fire and have no future." - Foreign Minister Shimon Peres

Beit Jala after reportedly reaching cease-fire deals for these areas. Sharon said he wanted to be in the country to observe developments in the field.

There had been reports that Ramallah, just north of Jerusalem, might be next in line for a redeployment, but Friday evening an IDF soldier, Sgt. Raz Mintz of Kiryat Motzkin, was gunned down by a passing car at a checkpoint near Ofra, north of Ramallah. A second soldier was moderately wounded.

The Al Aqsa Brigade, linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed credit for the shooting in a leaflet.

Meanwhile, at a European-sponsored conference on Middle Eastern economic issues in Majorca, Spain, Shimon Peres met twice with Arafat in what were described as informal meetings. Sharon had forbidden Peres to engage in substantive negotiations.

Peres sharply distinguished his own policies from those of Sharon, who has said that he, not his foreign minister, would lead Israel's diplomatic team in future negotiations with the Palestinians.

Asked whether settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip should be evacuated, Peres told Maariv: "Yes, and I would not be doing the Palestinians a favor. There are several settlements which are drawing fire and have no future."

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