ISRAELI and Palestinian leaders yesterday agreed to keep talking and produce a framework for a permanent peace deal at their first session in two years.

The leaders of Israel and the Palestinians have concluded a productive first round of peace negotiations, US President Barack Obama’s special envoy for the Middle East said today.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton formally opened the first direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in nearly two years today with a plea for both sides to make compromises to forge an agreement.

Three people have been killed after a cruise liner slammed into a dock in Egyptian Sinai.

The victim of a terrorist bombing in a crowded Cairo tourist spot was a French teenage girl on a school trip, it emerged today.

One of Tony Blair’s guards accidentally fired his gun at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport today as the former British prime minister was boarding a plane. No one was hurt.

Oil-producing countries may step up output to ease pressure on world prices, US President George Bush said today.

Hamas militants today released a recorded message from captured Israeli soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the first sign of life from the young serviceman since he was abducted exactly one year ago.

Beleaguered Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is considering calling presidential and legislative elections to strengthen his position, a top aide said today.

Nearly 4,000 American soldiers poured into Baghdad this week, the fourth of five brigades being sent to strengthen an 11-week-old crackdown aimed at quelling sectarian violence, the US military said today.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad confirmed today that his government will attend a major regional conference on Iraq set for this week in Egypt, the Iraqi prime minister's office said.

The Fallujah city council chairman, a critic of al-Qaida who took the job after his three predecessors were assassinated, was killed today – the latest blow in a violent internal Sunni struggle for control of an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said today that Iran had no plans to meet with US officials on the sidelines of the forthcoming conference on Iraq, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported.

Heavy cross-border rocket and artillery exchanges erupted along the Lebanese-Israeli frontier yesterday, and Israeli warplanes struck deep inside Lebanon, blasting Palestinian guerrilla bases near Beirut and Syria’s border.

Palestinian security today foiled an attempt to kill a top commander loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas with a roadside bomb, officials said, further raising tensions between Abbas’ Fatah movement and the Hamas-led government.

This week’s bombings in Sinai are linked to the terror attacks in the peninsula’s resorts of Sharm el-Sheik last year and Taba in 2004, Egyptian Interior Minister Habib el-Adly said today.

Egyptian authorities, already struggling with elusive terror cells in the rugged Sinai Peninsula, moved quickly yesterday – arresting 30 men in the triple bombings that ripped apart a resort town on a tranquil holiday evening.

MONDAY’S attacks on Dahab are expected to have an immediate impact on Egyptian tourism, which is the country’s main source of foreign exchange.

MONDAY’S attacks on Dahab are expected to have an immediate impact on Egyptian tourism, which is the country’s main source of foreign exchange.

Three explosions tonight rocked the Egyptian resort city of Dahab at the height of the tourist season, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 150 at just one hotel, according to the doctor who runs Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula rescue squad.

Egyptian police have arrested 22 young men on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks against tourists and other targets, a statement from the Interior Ministry said today.

Security forces today killed a key suspect and two other Islamic militants accused in deadly bombings of tourist resorts in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula.

Israel’s terror alert for the Sinai desert is based on information that Arab militants planning attacks against Israelis are already located in the resort area, an official said today.

ISRAEL and the Palestinian Authority yesterday said they feared al-Qaida terrorists will infiltrate Gaza through the Gaza-Egypt border.

Police in Jordan today detained several suspects as the hunt widened for the militants who fired the rockets that narrowly missed a US Navy ship anchored off Aqaba.

Seven Cypriot tourists were killed when the bus they were travelling in blew a front tyre on a mountain road in Egypt and crashed in a ravine today, police said.

THE Egyptian authorities received information about an imminent terrorist attack in Sharm el-Sheik days ahead of the devastating bombings, security officials said yesterday.

POLICE said yesterday they were searching for six Pakistani men in their widening investigation into Egypt’s deadliest terror attack that killed at least 88 people at the Red Sea resort, according to the latest figures.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has advised Irish people to exercise increased caution in Egyptian holiday resorts.

Egyptian police are searching for six Pakistani men who were in Sharm el-Sheik during the attacks that killed 88 people and have since disappeared, investigators said today.

EGYPTIAN police were searching last night for three suspected bombers who they believe escaped the scene of country's deadliest terror attacks ever.

SENIOR British police officers last night insisted there would be no change to a controversial shoot-to-kill policy after an innocent man was gunned down.

A BOMBER was seriously hurt yesterday when an explosive device - believed to have been intended for tourist shops near the famous pyramids of Giza - blew up, police said.

Egyptian police today struggled to identify dozens of the 88 people killed in three terror bomb blasts at a Red Sea resort.

As many as seven explosions, including at least four car bombs, struck Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik early today, hitting several hotels packed with foreign and Egyptian tourists and killing at least 36 people, witnesses and police said.

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners boarded buses early today at a prison in southern Israel on their way to freedom, the last phase of an Israeli pledge to release 900 prisoners as part of a ceasefire deal.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said today he will demand US President George Bush provide the Palestinians with strong political and financial support during a meeting next week.

Israeli and Palestinian security commanders failed to reach agreement today on the handover of the West Bank town of Jericho to Palestinian security control, but decided to meet a second time to try to salvage a deal.

Arab leaders today launched into a flurry of diplomatic activity, including a trip by Syrian President Bashar Assad to Saudi Arabia, as they sought to control a political storm over Syria’s role in neighbouring Lebanon.

Israel has agreed to remove major roadblocks as part of its withdrawal from five West Bank towns in coming weeks – the most tangible improvement in the lives of ordinary Palestinians as a result of a fledgling truce.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern yesterday hailed the successful outcome of a summit between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas declared today that their people would stop all violent attacks against each other, pledging to break a four year cycle of bloodshed and get peace talks back on track.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today hailed the successful outcome of a summit between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Israel and the Palestinians agreed a ceasefire at a historic summit today where Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he hoped Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would lead his people to to an independent state.