U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney is in Israel, adding his weight to American efforts to arrange an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire to end nearly 18 months of bloodshed. 

Before starting talks with Israeli officials, Mr. Cheney called on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to make a 100 percent effort to stop Palestinian terrorism. He also said he would be talking with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon about steps Israel can take to eliminate devastating hardships experienced by innocent Palestinian men, women and children. 

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has come to dominate Mr. Cheney's 11-nation trip to the Middle East. The original focus was to be on the U-S led war on terrorism and how to deal with Iraq. 

Mr. Cheney is to have extensive talks with U.S. special envoy Anthony Zinni and Israeli Prime Minister Sharon. Palestinian officials are angry that Mr. Cheney has not scheduled any meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. They say no Palestinian other than Mr. Arafat will meet with Mr. Cheney. 

General Zinni brought Israeli and Palestinian security officials together today to talk about an Israeli troop withdrawal from recently re-occupied Palestinian Authority areas. Officials on both sides suggest Israeli forces could start to withdraw from the Bethlehem area Monday night. 

Meanwhile, the Israeli army says troops shot and killed an armed Palestinian near one of the crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel. The army says Palestinians fired two home-made Qassam-2 rockets from northern Gaza into Israel, where they explodedly harmlessly in farmland. 

Before heading to Israel, Vice President Cheney made a quick stop in Kuwait, the last of the nine Arab states on his itinerary. As in his earlier stops, Mr. Cheney found Kuwaiti leaders preoccupied with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Kuwait's Foreign Minister, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, urged Mr. Cheney to pressure Israel to allow Palestinian leader Arafat to attend an Arab League summit in Beirut next week. He also told Mr. Cheney that Kuwait will not support any American military action on Iraq under present circumstances. 

Some information for this report provided by AFP and AP.

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