Israeli gunship kills top militant

An Israeli helicopter gunship killed a leading Palestinian militant and his bodyguard in a missile strike, the first attack of its kind since Israel began winding down its West Bank offensive.

Hundreds took to the streets of Hebron screaming for revenge after the body of Marwan Zuloum, identified by Palestinian sources as the local commander of an armed group linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, and his guard were pulled from the burning wreckage of their car early today.

A senior Palestinian accused Israel of carrying out an assassination. Previous killings of highranking militants have often led to suicide attacks.

The missile strike followed a day in which Israeli troops kept Arafat's headquarters and Bethlehem's Nativity Church under tight siege and US Assistant Secretary-of State William Burns seemed to make little progress in talks on the crisis with the Palestinian leader.

Inside Arafat's Ramallah compound, four Palestinian gunmen accused of killing Israel's tourism minister are being tried in front of a military court in an apparent attempt to head off an Israeli raid to arrest them.

The four are accused of killing Rehavan Zeevi, a far-Right politician who was part of Ariel Sharon's Cabinet. He was shot dead in a Jerusalem hotel last year and the Palestinians insist that under agreements with Israel they are not obliged to hand them over, but try them in a Palestinian tribunal.