HIGHLIGHTS: Chokehold Around Palestinian Cities Maintained||Sha'ath Discusses Palestinian Statehood Issue with Powell||Mideast Experts from Quartet-U.S., EU, Russia & U.N. Met in Washington Friday|| STORY: Israeli occupation troops ended a brief so-called anti-militant sweep in the West Bank city of Jenin early on Saturday.

Several armored personnel carriers, a tank and army jeeps entered Jenin about dawn in what Israeli occupation army officials described as a patrol sent into the city following warnings that militants were about to stage an attack in Israel.

They pulled out five hours later, maintaining a tight chokehold around the northern West Bank city from where dozens of bombings have been launched against Israeli occupation since the Palestinian uprising against occupation began in September 2000.

PALESTINIANS SUFFER DAILY HUMILATIONS

In the West Bank, Israeli occupation troops fired several shots into the air and threw three teargas canisters near about 200 Palestinians, many of them women and children, trying to cross at a checkpoint near Hebron.

A man and several women fainted from heat exhaustion and gas inhalation. The incident underscored Palestinian complaints that ordinary Palestinians are suffering daily humiliations while penned in at West Bank towns and villages by Israel's soldiers.

The Israeli raid into Jenin followed another on Friday into the West Bank city of Tulkarm.

PALESTINIANS WANT 2-YEAR PLAN FOR STATEHOOD-SHA'ATH

The Palestinian Authority meanwhile wants a fixed two-year timetable for setting up a Palestinian state, PA Minister for Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Sha'ath told U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell during their meeting on Friday. (Read photo caption)

The Palestinians want the two-year plan to be broken into one year for negotiations on a final status agreement and one year for its actual implementation, Sha'ath reportedly told Powell.

He later told reporters Powell listened to the Palestinian view that a state should be based on Israel's borders before 1967, but did not divulge what President Bush would ultimately decide.

The U.S. administration held final consultations with Middle East leaders on Friday as President George W. Bush prepared a peace initiative based on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Powell had separate talks on Friday with Israel's Occupation Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath.

Bush is reportedly planning to announce a new peace proposal, probably next week.

Elsewhere, Middle East specialists from the "quartet" - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - met Friday at the State Department to work on their proposal for a Middle East peace conference this summer.

PHOTO CAPTION

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had separate talks on Friday (June 14, 2002) with Israel's Occupation Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath.