Nablus/Tel Aviv  - Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian during an arrest raid in the northern West Bank city of Nablus Wednesday evening, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported.

An Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv said a special army force drove into Nablus to arrest a "wanted" militant of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement.

During the incursion into the city's Ras al-Ayn neighbourhood, violent clashes erupted between the Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen and stone-throwing residents.

Tel Aviv  - Israel has for the past year been cracking down on Gazans living or staying temporarily in the West Bank, in some cases forcibly expelling them back to the salient, an Israeli human rights group said Wednesday.

The move is part of an Israeli policy of separating the Palestinian populations of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, B'Tselem said in a position paper.

Tel Aviv - Israeli police recommended Sunday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert be indicted on bribery and other charges, following two separate investigations.

The State Prosecutor's Office will still have to look into the information gathered by the police and decide whether or not to indict, a process which might take until next month.

In addition to the bribery charge, police said they found enough evidence to support charges of fraud, breach of trust and money laundering, Israeli media reported.

Olmert is accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars, most of it in envelopes full of cash, from US-Jewish fundraiser Morris Talansky.

Tel Aviv - Israeli police officials were holding a crucial meeting Sunday to decide whether to recommend that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert be indicted for alleged corruption.

The meeting comes after detectives from the national fraud squad spent months investigating Olmert, including questioning him seven times.

Israeli media reported that the police recommendation will centre around three of the affairs in which Olmert is implicated.

He is accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars, most of it via envelopes full of cash, from US-Jewish fundraiser Morris Talansky.

Tel Aviv - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is the odds- on favourite to succeed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as leader of the ruling Kadima party, a poll released Thursday has found.

The survey, published in the Ma'ariv daily, showed 48.9 per cent of Kadima members want Livni to head the party, compared to 27.9 per cent for her main challenger, Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz.

The other two candidates in the leadership race, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and Interior Minister Meir Shitreet, received 8.1 per cent and 7.6 per cent respectively.