Peace road map stalls as Sharon and Abbas postpone summit meeting

ISRAELI and Palestinian leaders postponed a summit on a new Mideast peace plan, and Israeli troops killed a 16-year-old Palestinian and critically wounded two children during confrontations yesterday in the West Bank.

The shootings which the Israeli army said came in response to attacks by Palestinians throwing stones and molotov cocktails took place a day after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared that Israel's occupation in the West Bank must end, stunning both peace orientated opponents and hardline allies.

Mr Sharon's remarks and Israel's conditional acceptance on Sunday of the so-called "road map" to peace were expected to jump-start stalled Mideast peace negotiations.