Israeli troops shot dead a top Hamas official in the West Bank city of Hebron as drafters of the peace "road map" prepared to meet on Sunday to discuss ways of salvaging peace efforts imperiled by two weeks of violence.

Witnesses said soldiers shot Hamas leader Abdullah Kawasme on Saturday as he got out of his car near a large mosque known as a Hamas stronghold in Hebron. Palestinians labeled the killing an "assassination," but Israeli security sources said troops attempted to arrest Kawasme.

A political source said Kawasme was one of Israel's most wanted militants responsible for a series of attacks on Israelis, including last week's bus bombing in Jerusalem that killed 17 people.

The Palestinian Authority has long demanded Israel end its track-and-kill operations, which it says block attempts to achieve a truce and begin implementing the road map.

"This is another proof that the Israelis are...continuing the assassinations," Palestinian Cabinet Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters.

"These operations are meant to obstruct any success of the dialogue to reach a truce (with militants)," Rabbo added.

Designers of the road map -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- will meet in Jordan on Sunday to discuss ways to rescue the plan which charts a course toward the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.

"ALL-OUT-WAR" ON HAMAS

Israel has received international condemnation for its targeted operations aimed at Palestinian militants. It vowed all-out war on the militant group Hamas after last week's bus bombing, killing six Gaza militants using helicopter missiles.

The strikes also killed at least 17 bystanders, one of whom died of his wounds on Saturday, doctors said.

Hamas, which is committed to Israel's destruction, has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks following a June 4 summit in which Israeli and Palestinian leaders accepted the road map and vowed to cease the violence.

During a trouble-shooting visit by Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday, Hamas claimed responsibility for a shooting attack that killed a Jewish settler.

A source in Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said Israel agreed to give Palestinians three weeks to organize forces for a crackdown on militants.

During this period, Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza would largely stand down, the source said, but he added "there would be no immunity for 'ticking bombs"' -- militants Israel says are about to attack. Palestinians did not comment on the proposal.

U.S. officials said Gaza, Hamas' densely populated stronghold which has been subject to repeated Israeli incursions and air strikes, was under discussion for possible transfer to Palestinian security control to advance the peace plan.

U.S. sources in Washington said Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, co-managing peace efforts with Powell, would visit the region next week.

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