JERUSALEM (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Six Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded on Friday as protesters took to the streets across the Middle East to mark the first anniversary of the uprising against Israeli occupation.The confrontations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip further strained efforts to forge a lasting cease-fire that could boost a U.S. campaign to create an anti-terror coalition after the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11.
The guns briefly fell silent as church bells and Muslim calls of ``Allahu Akbar'' (God is Greatest) rang out in Palestinian towns and villages, where residents stood for three minutes of silence to commemorate a year of revolt.
But the rifle reports and bomb blasts so familiar to residents of the West Bank and Gaza resumed their unrelenting pace by nightfall.
At least 600 Palestinians and 169 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began after peace talks stalled.
In Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Iran and other parts of the Muslim world, supporters of the Palestinian cause marched in their thousands, burned effigies and chanted ``Death to Israel.''
Clashes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Friday cast a pall over attempts to cement a truce plan agreed on Wednesday at a meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
Despite that, Israeli and Palestinian officials went ahead on Friday with a new round of U.S.-sponsored security talks.
The United States welcomed the effort and urged the sides to preserve the calm and pursue negotiations.
``What's going on right now offers an opportunity to break with the violence, to break with the terror...it's also essential that both the Palestinians and Israelis avoid actions that jeopardize this renewed dialogue,'' said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher at a daily briefing.
The latest peace initiative, launched under pressure from Washington, is widely seen as crucial to U.S. hopes of recruiting Arab states for a global alliance against terror.

PHOTO CAPTION:
A Palestinian youth hurls a petrol bomb at Israeli troops during clashes between Palestinians and Israeli occupation soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron September 28, 2001. Two Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and dozens were wounded during clashes in Gaza Strip and the West Bank as Palestinians marked the annual anniversary of the uprising against occupation. (Loay Abu Haykel/Reuters)