Israel captured a top officer in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's presidential guard Thursday in the West Bank, as army officers warned that the territory's occupied cities were near boiling point.

Israel also announced it would try Arafat's West Bank lieutenant Marwan Barghuti, a jailed deputy of the Palestinian parliament, in a civil court for alleged terrorism.

Barghuti, accused by Israel of heading the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an ultra-violent offshoot of Arafat's Fatah group, will be spared trial in a military tribunal, the justice ministry said.

He was nabbed in Israel's prolonged invasion of Ramallah in April, and had headed the Jewish state's most wanted list. He has denied the links to hardline groups.

In an interview with CNN television, meanwhile, Arafat, who met at his battered Ramallah headquarters with EU Middle East envoy Miguel Angel Moratinos, said efforts must be stepped up to halt violence.

"We have to stop directly what is going on, for our children and for their children, for the Israelis and for the Palestinians, and for the Arabs and for the whole Middle East area," he said.

Israeli special forces captured Colonel Abdelrahim al-Nubani, the head of Arafat's elite Force 17 guard's security service, in a pre-dawn raid on a village near Ramallah, Palestinian officials said.

The Jewish state has repeatedly accused Force 17 members of attacking Israeli targets.

The army has said it could stay in the West Bank for months, but pressure is mounting on it to relieve the terrible conditions of the population of up to 800,000 people living under curfew and reoccupation.

Israeli public television said top army officers had pressed the new army chief, General Moshe Yahalon, for a partial withdrawal, saying three weeks of occupation had left towns on the "verge of a volcanic eruption."

A Palestinian human rights organisation warned that Israel's blockade of the territories risked creating a "humanitarian catastrophe".

"The Israeli occupation forces continue to commit their crimes against Palestinian civilians and their property," charged the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

On the ground, two Palestinian journalists were wounded by Israeli gunfire in Jenin when tanks rumbled into the West Bank town as residents thought the curfew had been lifted. The army said it was looking into the incident.

And a Palestinian man who was shot in the head by Israeli troops earlier this week near Bethlehem died in an Israeli hospital, members of his family said.

An army spokesman, meanwhile, said a soldier was slightly wounded by a roadside bomb as he drove a jeep near the Jewish settlement of Tekoa outside Bethlehem.

Israel earned a rare rebuke from its main ally Washington when the White House said the closure this week of the administrative offices of the Palestinian Al-Quds university in annexed east Jerusalem was "troubling."

The university is headed by one of the most moderate voices in Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Sari Nusseibeh, who has proposed groundbreaking compromises with Israel.

Defence Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, who is leader of the Labour party, a member of Sharon's coalition, criticised the closure.

"I don't understand how we could turn against someone who favours a demilitarised Palestinian state, renounces implementation of the right of return (of Palestinian refugees) and favours dialogue with Israel," he said.

"It is not possible to humiliate in such a rude way a moderate person who condemns anti-Israeli attacks and who could be a partner for negotiations," he told public television.

On the diplomatic front, the US State Department said a New York meeting of an international "quartet" on the Middle East was being delayed by one day until July 16 for logistical reasons.

The meeting of top officials from the United States, the European Union, United Nations and Russia, originally due to be held over two days, will now take place on Tuesday only, it said.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin on Thursday urged the United States and others to move ahead swiftly with peace initiatives.

"We want to stress the need for a political initiative. We think that the vacuum in the region can be very dangerous," he said after talks in Washington with US Secretary of State Colin Powell. See also:

AFP