Jerusalem - A day after winning the leadership of Israel's ruling party, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was set to begin consolidating her power in the faction Friday by meeting her defeated rivals.

However, her main rival Shaul Mofaz, who she defeated by only 1.1 per cent, or 431 votes, canceled his meeting with the new Kadima leader, after dramatically announcing Thursday night he was taking a timeout from politics.

Jerusalem - She was elected by Ti

Jerusalem - Every day without an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement is a day wasted, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday, as he made what may well be his last appearance before a Knesset committee.

"Every day that passes without coming to an agreement with the Palestinians is one more day that, in the future, we'll regret," Olmert was quoted as telling the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.

Jerusalem- Israel's counter-terrorism bureau issued an urgent warning Monday urging Israelis not to vacation in Egypt or the Sinai peninsula, for fear Islamic militants would kidnap them and smuggle them into the Gaza Strip.

The counter-terrorism bureau described the threat as "concrete, very high" and said the involvement of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement added to its seriousness.

Israelis already in Egypt or the Sinai were urged to leave immediately and not to linger.

Jerusalem - Israel has conveyed its displeasure to Washington over reported remarks by US Consul General Jacob Walles that it had agreed to start negotiations with the Palestinians over Jerusalem, an Israeli newspaper reported Friday.

The Jerusalem Post quoted an Israeli government source as saying Walles's comments to the Palestinian daily al-Ayyam were "highly inappropriate," since there was a US-Palestinian-Israeli agreement not to go public with what was being discussed by the negotiators.

Jerusalem  - Israel has been fencing off Jewish settlements located to the east of its controversial West Bank security barrier, to create buffer zones which are blocking Palestinian access to thousands of acres of lands, a rights group said Thursday.

The rings of land around the Jewish settlements are cordoned off by fences or other physical obstacles, the Israeli B'Tselem organization said.

They are erected either independently by settlers, or by the Israeli military as part of the "Special Security Area" plan, meant to provide protection to settlements from attacks and infiltrations by Palestinian militants.