Deal to end Bethlehem siege

Israel's siege of the Basilica of the Nativity began to draw to an end today after a 35-day stand-off between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen trapped in the Bethlehem church.

Palestinian security sources said Yasser Arafat had agreed to a deal in which 13 of the militants heading Israel's "most wanted" list for Bethlehem would be sent on "study leave" to Italy.

Another 26, mostly members of the Palestinian police, would be sent to the Gaza Strip, which in effect jails them behind barbed wire with 1.1 million other Palestinians. "One or two details will have to be worked out, like what they will do and where they will go in Italy. But a deal has been agreed and we expect the siege to end today," said a senior Palestinian source after talks with the Palestinian leader last night.

But the Basilica of the Nativity, founded in 333AD, which is jointly controlled by the Roman Catholic, Greek and Armenian Orthodox churches, has not escaped what has been the most dramatic desecration in its history.

The "original sin" began on 2 April when scores of armed men joined civilians in fleeing into the Basilica, built over the site where it is believed Jesus was born, as Israel tanks and infantry surrounded Manger Square outside.

The militants hung on to their weapons, sandbagged windows, and set up firing positions on the holy ground.

Israel's response was to impose a brutal siege on the church and the estimated 250 people inside, among them clerics, nuns, civilians, Palestinian youths, police and gunmen.

Within five days the Israelis killed the Christian bell-ringer, the mentally disabled and deaf Samir Salman, 45, when he reported for work at dawn, as he had his whole working life.

Israeli military spokesman Olivier Rafowicz insisted throughout the Bethlehem siege that Israel would do nothing to offend the sanctity of the holy site.

But six more people were to be shot dead, some died in the courtyard between the Basilica and St Catherine's Church, others were shot and bled to death inside the Basilica itself.

Asked how the sanctity of the church could have been respected if people were shot inside it, Israeli Lt Col Adir Haravi replied: "Was the Church damaged? The people [killed] were not Christian, or whatever. They were terrorists, all seven were terrorists."

The Israelis erected two robotic guns operated by remote control on the top of cranes and surrounded the Basilica with more than 50 sharpshooters. Many inside were wounded, including an Armenian priest who was shot in the back and is dangerously ill in an Israeli hospital. The deal to end the siege was hammered out by the CIA, the European Union and the Vatican.

It came as Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, today met President George Bush at the White House. Washington officials made it known that the United States is ready to take part in a " monitoring group" to oversee a ceasefire in the Middle East and establish security cooperation.

The unarmed civilian monitors could be used to investigate and settle disputes and conflicts and serve as observers at border checkpoints. Washington officials insist there are no plans for military personnel as peacekeepers. Mr Bush refrained from joining Mr Sharon in demands that Mr Arafat be replaced. Instead he called on Mr Arafat to "assume responsibility and lead".

The president said: "He has disappointed me. He must lead. He must show the world that he believes in peace. In order to achieve peace, all parties - the Arab nations, Israel, chairman Arafat and the Palestinian Authority - must assume their responsibilities and lead."

Mr Sharon is expected to lay out a "peace plan", which his Israeli and Palestinian critics have dismissed as a "non-starter". It is expected to involve an "interim solution" to the conflict involving "buffer zones" which would trap 90 per cent of the Palestinians on the West Bank behind barbed wire and control towers, while leaving Mr Sharon in control over most of the Occupied Territories.

America, which already gives Israel a grant close to $4 billion a year, will be expected to pay for this scheme.

Meanwhile, Mr Sharon has continued to insist that Mr Arafat should not be part of any peace talks. He took a dossier with him to America to prove that Mr Arafat has been backing terror attacks throughout the Intifada. Based largely on "captured documents", it has been dismissed as a forgery by the Palestinians.

A senior Western intelligence source told the Evening Standard that some of the Israeli documents appeared to be authentic.

"They seem to show that Arafat has been trying to buy his way into the Intifada, rather than control it, but he doesn't escape the main charge," the source said.

Israel has also had a swipe at the European Union, which it accused of financing terror by providing aid to Arafat's Palestinian Authority, an accusation rejected by Brussels. And Saudi Arabia, which has won cautious US backing for a peace plan which requires Israel to withdraw from the Occupied Territories, has also been accused of financing suicide bombers through Islamic charities which care for the families of "martyrs" - some of them bombers, others ordinary Palestinians killed by Israeli troops.

Among the latest recipients of Saudi aid will be the family of a Palestinian woman and her two children who were shot dead in Jenin yesterday.

The Israeli army claimed they had been killed by accident after a mine blew up near a tank.

When no mine was found, the army said the gunners had opened fire because they were spooked by the noise from a loose tank track.

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