A senior U.S. official has passed through Israeli lines to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who remains surrounded by Israeli forces at his West Bank compound in Ramallah. 

A spokesman for Mr. Arafat says the meeting with Assistant Secretary of State William Burns was a continuation of the discussions held at the compound last week by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. 

Mr. Powell said Sunday he wants Israel to loosen its confinement of Mr. Arafat to give the Palestinian leader a better chance to exercise his authority. Israel says it will not relax its grip on Mr. Arafat until he hands over the suspects in the killing of Israel's tourism minister in October 2001. 

Elsewhere in Ramallah Monday, masked gunmen shot and wounded three Palestinian men accused of being informers for Israel. 

Israeli forces withdrew from much of Ramallah and the city of Nablus on Sunday, scaling back a three-week offensive aimed at crushing Palestinian groups behind a spate of suicide bombings against Israelis. 

Israeli forces are keeping a tight military cordon around Palestinian towns. They also remain around the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where a number of armed Palestinians took refuge nearly three weeks ago. 

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops are reported to have killed two Palestinians today in a clash near the Boureij refugee camp. Palestinian security officials say the victims were guarding the camp and encountered an Israeli undercover unit. Israel has yet to comment. 

Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.

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