Sharon says airstrikes protected Israelis

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he employed warplanes against the Palestinians because he would do "what it takes" to protect Israelis.

He convened his top Cabinet ministers after a bloody weekend that claimed the lives of six Israelis and 16 Palestinians, including a suicide bomber who blew himself up outside an Israeli shopping centre.

Security is tight in preparation for Monday's Jerusalem Day, when Israel plans a series of marches in Jerusalem to show support for maintaining all of the city as the Jewish state's capital.

The Palestinians are demanding the part that Israel occupied in 1967 - including the Old City with its Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites - as their future capital.

In Cairo, a meeting of Arab foreign ministers and delegates asked Arab governments to sever political contact with Israel, until it ceased military action against Palestinians.

In Israel, politicians and analysts questioned whether the massive retaliation to Friday's attack - which included, for the first time in 34 years, warplane strikes against Palestinian targets - would have any effect.

Opposition leader Yossi Sarid said that the Palestinians killed were not necessarily the ones involved in violence.

"Those attacking us want high casualties on our side, but it's also clear they seek high casualties on their side (to) help trigger the cycle of extremism on their side," he said.

But Mr Sharon said: "We will do what it takes and use everything at our disposal to protect the citizens of Israel. The Americans understand that we cannot take any more."