US blast for Israel

The US has criticised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's military strategy against the Palestinians and questioned his chances of success

"Prime Minister Sharon has to take a hard look at his policies to see whether they will work," Secretary of State Colin Powell told a congressional hearing.

"If you declare war on the Palestinians and think you can solve the problem by seeing how many Palestinians can be killed, I don't know that leads us anywhere," he said.

It was one of the strongest US criticisms of Israeli policy since the Bush administration took office and followed days of extreme violence by both sides in the conflict.

Overnight, Israel sent tanks into the Palestinian-ruled city of Tulkarm and launched air raids on the West Bank. Before dawn, dozens of tanks seized positions throughout Tulkarm in the northern West Bank in an operation the Israeli army said was a sweep for "wanted terrorists and the weapons of terror networks".

A helicopter gunship fired a missile at the nearby Nour Shams refugee camp, where troops fought Palestinian gunmen, and F-16 warplanes struck security targets in Palestinian-ruled Bethlehem. The Israeli assaults took place within hours of an air raid on PLO leader Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters in Ramallah.