Israel released a jailed member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee in a goodwill gesture on the eve of a Middle East summit on Tuesday led by President Bush.

About another 100 Palestinian prisoners were likely to go free by Wednesday, when Bush follows a meeting with Arab leaders in Egypt with landmark talks in Jordan with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers on a new "road map" for peace.

Taysir Khaled, a leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a member of the PLO's executive committee -- its highest body -- was released from prison late on Monday.

"My arrest was politically motivated," Khaled said in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he was welcomed by Yasser Arafat at the Palestinian president's battered headquarters. Israeli defense officials were unavailable for comment.

Israel detained Khaled during a raid in February in the West Bank city of Nablus, and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas petitioned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for his freedom during talks on Thursday.

Defense officials said earlier this week some 100 other Palestinians, mainly prisoners on the brink of release or in ill health, would leave jail within days once Israel's Shin Bet internal security service finalized a release roster.

In his first presidential visit to the Middle East, Bush flew into the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for a summit with leaders from Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, as well as with Abbas.

He will seek support for the "road map," which calls for an end to Israeli-Palestinian violence, reciprocal confidence-building steps -- including a freeze in Jewish settlement expansion -- and a Palestinian state by 2005.

In the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers shot dead a lieutenant from the Palestinian national security forces in an attack on a Palestinian position, Palestinian security sources said.

Israeli military sources said troops opened fire toward armed men who approached them at night in an area where the military bans Palestinian movement.

FIRST BUSH MEETING WITH ABBAS

It will be Bush's first meeting with Abbas, reluctantly appointed prime minister by Arafat after the veteran leader was shunned by the United States and Israel over allegations he supported violence in a now 32-month-old uprising for statehood.

Arafat, who denies encouraging bloodshed, will not attend the two summits, effectively frozen out of peacemaking by the international community but still wielding influence among Palestinians who see him as the father of their struggle.

Bush's attendance at the meetings signals a more personal approach toward Middle East peacemaking after a U.S.-led war in Iraq that angered many Arabs.

Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid, who will accompany Sharon to Wednesday's summit in Aqaba, Jordan, said Israel expected Bush to come away with "satisfactory guarantees from the Palestinian side that terrorism will be stopped."

Palestinian legislator Saeb Erekat said Bush's personal involvement was critical for peace to have a chance.

"He must come to the summit with the mechanisms for implementation -- with timelines and monitors -- in order to immediately begin the implementation of the road map," Erekat said.

Ahead of the summit, Israel tightened security around Jerusalem, where dozens have been killed in suicide bombings since the Palestinian revolt began. Police stepped up patrols in the city and set up additional roadblocks.

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