Long-Awaited Mideast Summit Set

The Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers have tentatively agreed to hold a summit next week, their first meeting since the Palestinian leader took office in October, Israeli and Palestinian officials said Wednesday.

The delayed summit is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, a Palestinian official said on condition of anonymity.

Officially, advisers for both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia refused to confirm the meeting, saying certain conditions must be met first.

Meanwhile, Israeli undercover units killed four armed Palestinian militants Wednesday in the West Bank town of Jenin, Palestinians said.

The four were members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militia linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

The Israeli army said it entered the town to arrest a fugitive and shot four armed figures who had taken aim at the soldiers. The soldiers said they hit all four, but did not know their condition.

Israeli media reported the main topic at the summit would be Sharon's plan to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip, a proposal that could include the removal of most Jewish settlements in the coastal area.

Qureia and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon have delayed meeting for months.

Qureia had said he wanted guaranteed results from a summit, such as a halt to Israel's construction of the West Bank security barrier, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger, but he backed down after the U.S. pressured him to hold the meeting.

Meanwhile, a key Israel adviser on Israel's West Bank separation barrier, told the Israeli Haaretz daily that the government had decided against building a section of the contentious structure that would encircle Palestinians, another sign Israel is backing down on its original plans for the barrier.

Dany Tirza, Sharon's top adviser on the barrier, told Haaretz the government had decided against putting up a fence in the Jordan Valley on the eastern section of the West Bank "because of the diplomatic damage" it would cause.

Israel says it needs the barrier of razor wire, concrete walls and trenches to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers. But the structure being built on the western section of the West Bank deeps dip into the territory in some areas, isolating Palestinian towns and villages.

Faced with appeals to Israel's Supreme Court — and a nonbinding decision to be handed down in the coming months by the world court — Israel has already made several changes to the route, and officials have acknowledged others are planned.

Tirza said there would be a 1.43-mile "hole" in the barrier being built around Jerusalem, so as not to leave the 32,000 residents who live in the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim on the West Bank side of the barrier.

The report came amid a flurry of diplomatic meetings on Sharon's withdrawal proposal.

Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman was to meet Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Ramallah on Wednesday to discuss the plan. Egypt fears a power vacuum in Gaza following an Israeli withdrawal could lead to chaos and anarchy in the coastal strip on its border.

However, Suleiman is expected to make it clear to Arafat that Egypt has no interest in controlling the Gaza Strip following an Israeli withdrawal. Egypt instead will offer the Palestinians assistance if the Israelis leave, Israel's Maariv newspaper reported.

Suleiman secretly met Sharon earlier in the week, ahead of a planned meeting Thursday between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. The meeting in Cairo will be the highest-level Israeli-Egyptian meeting since Sharon took office three years ago.

Three U.S. envoys were to arrive in Jerusalem Thursday for another round of talks on Sharon's "disengagement plan": Assistant Secretary of State William Burns; Stephen Hadley, deputy director of the National Security Council; and Elliot Abrams, a Middle East specialist at the council.

Israeli officials traveled to Washington last week to discuss the proposal with Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

After those meetings, Israeli officials said the sides needed to hold further discussions before a possible meeting between Sharon and President Bush. The United States also wants assurances that chaos will not erupt in the volatile, poverty-ridden Gaza Strip after a withdrawal.

Violence in the Gaza Strip has increased in recent weeks as Israel and Palestinian militant groups fight to make any withdrawal look like a victory for their side.

Earlier Wednesday, Israeli troops backed by tanks, armored personnel carriers and bulldozers raided the Rafah refugee camp along the Egypt-Gaza border. Forces surrounded two houses, while clashes with gunmen erupted.

The army confirmed it was searching for tunnels used by the Palestinians to smuggle weapons from Egypt into Gaza. The army often searches for and demolishes such tunnels, sometimes destroying homes and fields in the process.