The chief Palestinian negotiator in Bethlehem had threatened to boycott further talks unless Israel released nine Palestinians youths who left the Church of the Nativity complex accompanying the bodies of two men killed by gunfire. Eight of the nine were released after questioning concerning their possible participation in anti-Israeli attacks and the situation inside the church, according to the negotiator, Salah al-Taamari. Fuad al-Laham, 19, was handed over to Israel's internal security agency Shin Beth for further questioning, Taamari said.

The negotiations have stalled over Israel's refusal to accept a Palestinian proposal to evacuate all the gunmen to Gaza and the Palestinians' rejection of an Israeli proposal that they face either exile or trial in Israel. No new talks were scheduled Friday. Taamari said he had received Israeli authorization to visit Arafat on Saturday in his besieged base in the town of Ramallah to brief him on the negotiations.

While residents of the Jenin refugee camp on the northernmost West Bank continued to dig out of the rubble, Israeli officials awaited the arrival of a UN fact-finding team that will look into the nine days of fierce fighting. Government spokesman Avi Pazner confirmed that major issues brought up with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan were resolved during a series of meetings in New York but minor points remained to be settled. Israel had originally given its approval to the mission but balked amid fears it would focus on the destruction at Jenin and ignore concerns the camp had been turned into what the Israelis call a haven for terrorists.

Pazner said Israel wants to make sure that the team arriving here "remains a UN fact-finding mission and not one that makes any recommendations." Amnesty called on Monday for an international war crimes probe into the events surrounding the Israeli invasion of Jenin.

On the diplomatic front, US President George W. Bush welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz to his Texas ranch Thursday where the two leaders spoke of their shared "vision" for Middle East peace. But a key Saudi aide warned of "grave consequences" if Washington did not moderate its support for Israel.

Israel pressed its sweep through the West Bank today in search of Palestinian militants and warned it was ready to use force if necessary to end a standoff at the Church of the Nativity. Israeli troops backed by 15 armored vehicles and two helicopters pursued their nearly month-old West Bank offensive, entering the town of Qalqilya before dawn and detaining up to 20 Palestinians, the army said. The militants, suspected of taking part in anti-Israeli attacks, were picked up in Qalqilya and in three villages between the towns of Nablus and Jenin, a spokesman said. Witnesses said two local leaders of the radical group Hamas were detained in Qalqilya, and 10 people linked to the Palestinian security forces or Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement were arrested near Jenin.

The army withdrew from Qalqilya on April 9 after occupying it during "Operation Defensive Wall" launched on March 29th. Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said when inspecting troops in the area that the incursion was a short-term operation and not a reoccupation of the town. He said the forces moved on information that new anti-Israeli attacks were being prepared in Qalqilya, which is near the suburbs of Tel Aviv.

In Bethlehem, where three days of negotiations have failed to evacuate about 200 Palestinian gunmen holed up inside the Church of the Nativity, an army commander, Captain Joe Leyden, told reporters: "If we have to exercise a military option, we will." The military had previously ruled out storming the church, which marks the birthplace of Jesus. The Vatican has appealed to Israel to end the siege.

Shaati, a representative of the inhabitants of the Jenin refugee camp, said that they rejected help provided by the US because of its foreign policy concerning the Palestinian question and "because the camp was destroyed by US-made weapons." Washington provides Israel with around three billion dollars of annual aid, of which more than half is military support.

The aid was sent by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The trucks bore its emblem as well as the US flag. A large crowd of camp residents, including representatives of all political factions there, threw the goods back into the trucks after they had been unloaded at the camp's entrance, Shaati said. The trucks were then forced to leave.

USAID officials in Tel Aviv said they were not aware of the incident. But a spokesperson for the US consulate in occupied Jerusalem told AFP that "despite a mini-demonstration, the trucks arrived in the camp and their content was delivered to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) there." UNRWA will distribute US assistance to the camp's residents over the next few days and Jenin's governor has publicly thanked us," she said.

Shaati rebutted the statement angrily, saying that the goods were finally unloaded but "in an UNRWA school outside the camp. The residents just don't want US help, is that clear?" He threatened that the camp's youth will come and burn the goods if UNRWA attempts to get them into the camp.

The refugee camp in Jenin was devastated by the Israeli army's invasion. In a week of bitter fighting, Israel used bulldozers, Apache helicopters and tanks to crush a die-hard group of Palestinian resistance fighters who booby-trapped streets and houses and killed 23 Israeli soldiers.