Palestinian, American and British officials are set to meet Monday in the West Bank to work out details of a plan to lift the Israeli siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Israel has confined Mr. Arafat to his Ramallah headquarters since December. 

Under the deal, which was proposed by President Bush and accepted by both the Israelis and the Palestinians, Israel will grant Mr. Arafat his freedom as soon as six wanted Palestinian militants are transferred from Ramallah to a Palestinian jail in Jericho. Their confinement is to be monitored by U.S. and British guards. 

A Palestinian spokesman says the prisoner transfer should be completed within 48 hours. 

Four of the six suspects were convicted last week by a makeshift Palestinian court in Mr. Arafat's compound of involvement in the October assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. 

The two remaining suspects include the head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Saadat, and senior Arafat aide Fuad Shobaki. 

Mr. Shobaki is the chief financial officer for the Palestinian Authority. He is suspected of providing funds to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an offshoot of Mr. Arafat's Fatah movement that has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide attacks against Israeli targets. 

In other developments, an Israeli sniper has killed a militant holed up in Bethlehem's besieged Church of the Nativity. 

About 200 people, including armed Palestinians, took refuge in the church shortly after Israel launched a major offensive against Palestinian targets late last month. 

An unknown number of Christian clerics are also in the church. But it is not clear whether the clerics are prisoners or whether they chose to remain inside the church when the siege began. 

Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.

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