The militant Islamic Jihad organisation has accepted a conditional three-month halt to attacks on Israelis, a leader of the group said today.

A US-sponsored peace initiative was finally moving forward after Islamic militants agreed to halt attacks on Israelis for three months and Israel said it would pull back forces from the Gaza Strip and Bethlehem.

THE Palestinian prime minister, who is making a final push to halt attacks on Israelis, met yesterday with a US envoy dispatched to the region to get a Mideast peace plan back on track.

The US began piling the pressure on the Palestinian leadership today to halt attacks on Israelis and save the latest Mideast peace effort.

EGYPTIAN envoys failed to achieve a breakthrough yesterday in talks with Palestinian militants aimed at arranging a ceasefire with Israel and salvaging a US-backed peace road map battered by violence.

US and Egyptian mediators intensified efforts to persuade militant Palestinians to agree to suspend attacks against Israelis in a bid to salvage a US-backed peace plan threatening to collapse under the weight of renewed violence.

PRIME MINISTER Ariel Sharon vowed yesterday, after an Israeli-Palestinian security meeting, to continue attacks on militants suspected of planning suicide bombings, a senior Israeli political source said.

Israel and the Palestinians are resuming top-level security talks despite a bloody week of bombings and missile strikes that left 60 people dead on both sides, officials said today.

ISRAEL yesterday pledged a "war to the bitter end" against Hamas but an opinion poll showed a majority of Israelis oppose the stepped-up attacks on leaders of the militant Islamic group.

Efforts to find peace in the Middle East took more serious blows today as the Israeli prime minister vowed to hunt Hamas militants “to the bitter end” and the Islamic terror group threatened to unleash multiple attacks.

US President George Bush tonight flew out of the cauldron of Mideast politics after extracting concessions from the Israeli and Palestinian leaders that might just give peace a chance.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders made concessions today to keep the road map to Mid East peace on track.

International missile experts found that an Iraqi missile exceeded the maximum 93-mile range allowed under United Nations resolutions, US and Russian officials have said.