PARIS - Security officials canceled the final run of the Olympic relay through Paris after chaotic protests Monday, sending a snuffed-out torch to its destination on a bus in a humiliating concession to protesters decrying China's human rights record.

The bus stopped right outside the final stop, a stadium, so a runner could finish the last 15 feet of the relay.

At least two activists got within almost an arm's length of the flame earlier in the day before they were grabbed by police.

Another protester threw water at the torch but failed to put it out before being taken away. Worried officials extinguished the torch and carried aboard the bus five times before the final cancellation.

The chaos started on the Eiffel Tower's first floor moments after the relay began. Green Party activist Sylvain Garel lunged for the first torchbearer, former hurdler Stephane Diagana, and shouted "Freedom for the Chinese!" Security officials pulled Garel back.

"It is inadmissible that the games are taking place in the world's biggest prison," Garel said later.

The procession continued but a crowd of activists waving Tibetan flags soon interrupted it by confronting the torchbearer on a road along the Seine River. The demonstrators did not appear to get within reach of the torch, but its flame was put out by security officers and put on board a bus to continue part way along the route.

Less than an hour later, the flame was being carried out of a traffic tunnel by a woman athlete in a wheelchair when the procession was halted by activists who booed and chanted "Tibet." Once again, the torch was temporarily extinguished and put on a bus.

The third time, security officials apparently interrupted the procession because they spotted demonstrators ahead. After the torch was put on a bus, protesters threw plastic bottles, cups and pieces of bread at the vehicle and at a male wheelchair-bound athlete.

The torch disappeared back inside the bus a fourth time shortly after a protester approached it with a fire extinguisher near the Louvre art museum. Police grabbed the demonstrator before he could start to spray.

The flame was whisked into a bus again outside the National Assembly, where protesters gathered. A session of parliament was interrupted and a banner on the building read: "Respect for Human Rights in China." City Hall draped its building with a banner reading, "Paris defends human rights around the world."

Other demonstrators scaled the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame cathedral and hung banners depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs.

About 3,000 officers were deployed on motorcycles, in jogging gear and with inline roller skates.

A Paris police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media, says at least 28 people have been taken into custody during the protests.

Pro-Tibet advocate Christophe Cunniet said he and around 20 other Tibet advocates were detained after they waved Tibetan flags, threw flyers and tried to block the route. Cunniet said police kicked him, cutting his forehead. "I'm still dazed," he said.

Mireille Ferri, a Green Party official, said she was held by police for two hours because she approached the Eiffel Tower area with a fire extinguisher.

In various locations throughout the city, activists angry about China's human rights record and crackdown on protesters in Tibetan areas carried Tibetan flags and waved signs reading "the flame of shame." Riot police squirted tear gas to break up a sit-in protest by about 300 demonstrators who blocked the torch route.

"The flame shouldn't have come to Paris," said protester Carmen de Santiago, who had "free" painted on one cheek and "Tibet" on the other.

Torchbearer Diagana said he was disappointed to see the protests, though he understood why activists were there.

"Nothing is happening as planned. It's unfortunate," he told France 2 television.

At least one athlete was supportive of demonstrators. Former Olympic champion Marie-Jose Perec told French television: "I think it is very, very good that people have mobilized like that."

Pro-Chinese activists carrying national flags held counter-demonstrations.

"The Olympic Games are about sports. It's not fair to turn them into politics," said Gao Yi, a Chinese second-year doctoral student in Paris in computer sciences.

France's former sports minister, Jean-Francois Lamour, stressed that, though the torch was put out aboard the bus, the Olympic flame itself still burned in the lantern where it is kept overnight and on airplane flights.

"The torch has been extinguished but the flame is still there," he told France Info radio.

Police had hoped to prevent the chaos that marred the relay in London a day earlier. There, police had repeatedly scuffled with activists angry about China's human rights record leading up to the Beijing Olympics Aug. 8-24. One protester tried to grab the torch; another tried to put out the flame with what appeared to be a fire extinguisher. Thirty-seven people were arrested.

In Paris, police had drawn up an elaborate plan to try to keep the torch in a safe "bubble." Torchbearers were encircled by several hundred officers. Boats patrolled the Seine River, which slices through the French capital, and a helicopter flew overhead.

About 80 athletes had been scheduled to carry the torch over the 17.4-mile route that started at the Eiffel Tower, headed down the Champs-Elysees toward City Hall, then crossed the Seine before ending at the Charlety track and field stadium.

full story - Yahoo

Oh why oh why does the happenings of Chavez's seized laptop begin to have familiar undertones to Iraq? With all the news coming out from Chavez's side over the last number of months one would have been forgiven for wondering when murky aspects would crop up regarding his dealings.
[COLOR="Navy"]
BOGOTA, Colombia - A single laptop can reveal much, and so it is with the digital treasure chest that Colombian commandos found in the jungle quarters of slain rebel leader Raul Reyes.[/COLOR]

Is this a jaded pallet considering that their are different motives behind recent Chavez melodramas being played out?

[COLOR="Navy"]Files in the computer seized in Saturday's raid into Ecuador that claimed the lives of Reyes and 23 of his comrades offer an intimate portrait of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's desire to undermine Colombia's U.S.-allied government.

If authentic, the documents show that sympathies Chavez first aired publicly in January grew out of a relationship that dates back more than a decade. But Chavez is not one of the correspondents, and his sentiments mentioned in these documents are relayed solely through the rebels.

Venezuela says the documents are lies and fabrications. If they are, they are expertly done.[/COLOR]

Does this sound familiar?

Boy oh boy we can do without a new Axis of Evil speech

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The chairman of Pakistan's ruling party conceded defeat Tuesday after opposition parities scored wins in parliamentary elections that could threaten the rule of President Pervez Musharraf — America's close ally in the war on terror.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, told AP Television News that "we accept the results with an open heart" and "will sit on opposition benches" in the new parliament."

Final results were not expected before Tuesday evening, but the election's outcome appeared to be a stinging public verdict on Musharraf, whose popularity plummeted following his decisions late last year to impose emergency rule, purge the judiciary, jail political opponents and curtail press freedoms.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan's opposition dealt a crushing blow to allies of President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections, threatening the rule of America's close ally in the war on terror, according to unofficial results cited by a private TV network Tuesday.

The party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was in the lead in Monday's parliamentary vote, with ex-premier Nawaz Sharif — who was toppled in Musharraf's 1999 coup and has emerged as his fiercest critic — running a close second.

The private Geo TV network said the two parties had so far won 139 seats, more than half of the 272-seat National Assembly.

The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q party was trailing a distant third with 33 seats. A ream of party stalwarts and former Cabinet ministers lost in their constituencies.

"All the King's men, gone!" proclaimed a banner headline in the Daily Times. "Heavyweights knocked out," read Dawn newspaper.

Final results were not expected before Tuesday evening, but the outcome appeared to be a stinging public verdict on Musharraf, whose popularity plummeted following decisions late last year to impose emergency rule, purge the judiciary, jail political opponents and curtail press freedoms.

With the support of smaller groups and independent candidates, the opposition could gain a two-thirds majority in parliament needed to impeach the president, who also angered many Pakistanis by allying the country with Washington to fight al-Qaida and the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The PML-Q said it accepted the results, but party president Pervaiz Elahi stopped short of conceding defeat before the returns were more complete.

"We happily accept the verdict of the people," Elahi, the outgoing chief minister of Punjab province, told Geo TV on Tuesday.

"If our opponents had faced the same situation at a time when 60 per cent of the results are still to come, they might have started talking about rigging, and we are not doing it ... We have been sitting on opposition benches in the past, and we can do it now as well."

He said the PML-Q had elected Musharraf for five years. "We respect him, and we are still with him," he said.

Sharif has been outspoken in demanding that Musharraf be removed and that Supreme Court justices whom the president sacked late last year be returned to their posts.

The spokesman for Sharif's party, Saqiq ul-Farooq told reporters Tuesday that Musharraf "should go." But he added that if the restored justices validate Musharraf's October election to a new term, the opposition would accept the decision.

"We want to put Pakistan back on the track of democracy, constitution and rule of law, and the restoration of sacked judges is must to achieve this goal," he said.

Although fear and apathy kept millions of voters at home Monday, the elections for national and provincial assemblies were a major step toward democracy in Pakistan, which has been under military for the past eight years under Musharraf and for over half of its 60-year history.

A win by the opposition is likely to restore the public's faith in the political process and quell fears that the results would be rigged in favor of the pro-Musharraf forces.

Islamic militant violence scarred the campaign, most notably Bhutto's Dec. 27 assassination, but Monday's balloting was spared such an attack. The government, however, confirmed 24 election-related deaths in clashes between political parties.

About 18 hours after vote-counting began, Geo TV said unofficial tallies from 229 of the 268 National Assembly seats being contested showed Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party with 33.1 percent and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party with 27.5 percent. The pro-Musharraf PML-Q was third with 14.4 percent.

Contests in four assembly seats have been delayed for various reasons, including the death of candidates during the campaign.

The Election Commission had results for 124 seats, with Sharif's party holding 30 percent, Bhutto's party holding 26.6 percent and the PML-Q with 12.1 percent.

Several close political allies of Musharraf were election casualties. The chairman of the ruling party, the foreign minister and railways minister were among those who lost seats in Punjab, the most populous province and a key electoral battleground.

Musharraf, who was not on the ballot, has said a strong, democratically elected government is needed to fight a rise in Islamic militancy, and the retired army general pledged Monday to work with the new government regardless of which party wins.

"I will give them full cooperation as president, whatever is my role," he said.

Religious parties also fared badly, and were set to lose their control of the North West Frontier Province gained in the last parliamentary elections in 2002 when they benefited from Pakistani anger over the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The U.S. government, Musharraf's strongest international backer, was anxious for a credible election to shore up democratic forces at a time of mounting concern over political unrest in this nuclear-armed nation and a growing al-Qaida and Taliban presence in the northwest.

"Every single vote must be counted fairly, and the numbers must be transmitted so decisions can be made," said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat who was one of several American lawmakers monitoring the election.

Lee said that an "effective government for the people of Pakistan" was America's "great concern."

Despite the stakes, it appeared most of the country's 81 million voters stayed home — either out of fear of extremist attacks or lack of enthusiasm for the candidates, many of whom waged lackluster campaigns.

Sarwar Bari of the nonprofit Free and Fair Elections Network said reports from his group's 20,000 election observers indicated voter turnout was about 35 percent. That would be the same as in the 1997 election — the lowest in Pakistan's history.

Bhutto's party had hoped to ride a public wave of sympathy after the former prime minister was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack but it appeared Sharif's tougher line against Musharraf also struck a chord with voters.

Bhutto had negotiated with Musharraf before she returned from exile in October, and her widowed husband Asif Ali Zardari, who now leads her Pakistan Peoples Party, has left open the possibility of working with the president. source Yahoo

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush unveiled a $3.1 trillion budget on Monday that supports sizable increases in military spending to fight the war on terrorism and protects his signature tax cuts.

The spending proposal, which shows the government spending $3 trillion in a 12-month period for the first time in history, squeezes most of government outside of national security, and also seeks $196 billion in savings over the next five years in the government's giant health care programs -- Medicare for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor.

Even with those savings, Bush projects that the deficits, which had been declining, will soar to near-record levels, hitting $410 billion this year and $407 billion in 2009. The all-time high deficit in dollar terms was $413 billion in 2004.

Democrats attacked Bush's final spending plan as a continuation of this administration's failed policies which wiped out a projected 10-year surplus of $5.6 trillion and replaced it with a record buildup in debt.

''Today's budget bears all the hallmarks of the Bush legacy -- it leads to more deficits, more debt, more tax cuts, more cutbacks in critical services,'' said House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt, D-S.C.

For his last budget, Bush, as a moneysaving measure, stopped the practice of providing 3,000 paper copies of the budget to members of Congress and the media, instead posting the entire document online at http://www.budget.gov. Democrats joked that Bush cut back on the printed copies because he ran out of red ink.

''The president proposes more of the same failed policies he has embraced throughout his time in office -- more deficit-financed war spending, more deficit-financed tax cuts tilted to benefit the wealthiest and more borrowing from foreign nations like China and Japan,'' said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

Bush defended his record, saying it supported a strong defense and, if his policies are followed, will produce a balanced budget by 2012, three years after he leaves office.

''Two key principles guided the development of my budget -- keeping America safe and ensuring our continued prosperity,'' Bush said in his budget message to Congress. ''As commander in chief, my highest priority is the security of the American people.''

Bush's final full budget is for the 2009 fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1. It proposes spending $3.1 trillion, up 6 percent from projected spending of $2.9 trillion in the current budget year.

Part of the deficit increase this year and next reflects the cost of a $145 billion stimulus package of tax refunds for individuals and tax cuts for business investment that Bush is urging Congress to pass quickly to try to combat a threatened recession.

Bush projects that the deficit will decline rapidly starting in 2010 and will achieve a $48 billion balance in 2012.

But Democrats said that forecast was based on flawed math that only included $70 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009 and no money after that and also failed to include any provisions after this year for keeping the alternative minimum tax, originally aimed at the wealthy, from ensnaring millions of middle-class taxpayers. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that fixing the AMT in 2012 would cost $118 billion, more than double the surplus Bush is projecting for that year.

Even some Republicans faulted Bush's budget sleight of hand.

''They've obviously played an inordinate number of games to try to make it look better,'' Sen. Judd Gregg, the top Republican on the Budget Committee, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

''Let's face it. This budget is done with the understanding that nobody's going to be taking a long, hard look at it,'' said Gregg, R-N.H.

Bush's spending blueprint sets the stage for what will probably be epic battles in the president's last year in office, as both parties seek to gain advantages with voters heading into the November elections.

The 6 percent overall increase in spending for 2009 reflects a continued surge in spending on the government's huge benefit programs for the elderly -- Social Security and Medicare, even with the projected five-year savings of $196 billion over five years. Those savings are achieved by freezing payments to hospitals and other health care providers. A much-smaller effort by Bush in this area last year went nowhere in Congress.

While Bush projects that total security funding in the areas of the budget controlled by annual appropriations will go up by 8.2 percent, he projects only a 0.3 percent increase in discretionary spending for the rest of government.

To achieve such a small boost, Bush would hold hundreds of programs well beyond what is needed to keep up with inflation. He also seeks to eliminate or sharply slash 151 programs he considers unnecessary.

Bush targeted many of the same programs last year but Congress rejected the effort. source NYTimes

Rising fears of a full blown UK recession are forcing home owners to sell their properties at below market prices.

They are taking these desperate measures because debt problems mean they can’t afford to wait for a turnaround in the property market.

National Homebuyers, the UK’s largest home purchase company has launched a £250 million rescue fund to assist families struggling to meet their mortgage commitments.

“This safety net is available for those most at risk mortgage holders,” says Julian King of National Homebuyers. “We believe we can support at least a thousand families who are struggling to make their payments before it is too late.”

This week’s stock market falls have added to the woes of thousands of home owning people in the UK. It is estimated that 45,000 could face repossession this year as the effects of the credit crunch and the beginnings of a global recession take their toll.

A recent survey by National Homebuyers found that just under half those seeking its services (49%) are expecting the value of their homes to plummet.

“There has been a sea change in the property market in the last six months. Many homeowners are not able to meet their mortgage payments and are desperate for a solution,” says King.

He adds: “There is talk of interest rate cuts on the horizon. But for many families it will be too little too late. They can’t afford to rely on the Bank of England’s policy makers to save them.”

National Homebuyers saw an unprecedented high-volume of enquiries in the summer with calls up 95 per cent during the height of the 5.75% interest rates. “Homeowners were expecting the worst ahead of the government and the economy, we have been listening to their concerns and have found the funding to support them.”

Many of the 1.4 million homeowners, whose fixed-rate mortgages revert to base rates during the next three months, will find difficulty sourcing an affordable alternative.

Debt-laden families also face a triple-whammy from credit lenders tightening controls on borrowing. With higher interest rates, less money being lent and the spectre of negative equity, an increasing number of homeowners seem to be opting for a sale.

“Banks have been lending too much to those who cannot afford it and subsequently ended up struggling to meet extortionate mortgage repayments.

“This year we’re on a mission to help people sell the home they can’t afford more easily and efficiently than ever before. We’re focused on removing as much stress from the process for them as possible,” adds Mr. King.

“The tragedy of people losing their homes because they cannot meet repayments must be avoided. This increases the likelihood of families being broken up because of debt.”

National Homebuyers is positioning itself as the company which can help home owners who can’t afford to wait and see.

“National Homebuyers is the best placed company to help families adversely affected by debt,” says Mr. King. “We are well funded and can guarantee to purchase.”

“We can act fast and help people out of the burden of debt by releasing equity in their homes before that equity diminishes.”

Further information:

National Homebuyers’ Mortgage Rescue Scheme is being promoted on its website

Key elements of National Homebuyers’ Mortgage Rescue Scheme:

Scheme offers two alternatives to home owners:

1)Sell their property and downsize/ switch to renting.
2)Sell their property then remain as tenant

• No age limit
• No HIP costs
• Offers an immediate solution ‘often within days’
• Participants can sell at a rate which allows them to remain in their home rent free
• All packages are flexible and bespoke to the sellers situation

BOGOTA, Colombia - A volcano erupted violently in southwestern Colombia Thursday, spewing ash miles into the sky and prompting the evacuation of several thousand people living nearby.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or serious property damage after the 14,110-foot Galeras volcano began erupting about 8 p.m. and cascading lava lit up the night sky.

About 8,000 people live in areas near the volcano where Pasto's mayor ordered an evacuation but "most of the city is not in danger," Fernando Gil, director of Colombia's Seismological Network, told The Associated Press by phone.

"It's still erupting," Gil said more than two hours after its initial eruption.

Gil estimated that the ash cloud reached five miles into the air.

He called it the most severe eruption of Galeras since the volcano reactivated in 1989.

"Depending on the wind direction it's going to spread ashes over the entire area."

"Most of (Galeras') eruptions are violent and short," he noted. He said Thursday's eruption had produced some lava flows that did not extend far from the volcano's crater.

A 1993 eruption of the volcano, near the border with Ecuador, killed nine people, including five scientists who had descended into the crater to sample gases.

In November 2005, the volcano spewed ash that fell about 30 miles away.

HOUSTON - Two Baylor College of Medicine researchers in Houston are working on a cocaine vaccine they hope will become the first-ever medication to treat people hooked on the drug. "For people who have a desire to stop using, the vaccine should be very useful," said Dr. Tom Kosten, a psychiatry professor who is being assisted in the research by his wife, Therese, a psychologist and neuroscientist. "At some point, most users will give in to temptation and relapse, but those for whom the vaccine is effective won't get high and will lose interest."

The vaccine, currently in clinical trials, stimulates the immune system to attack the real thing when it's taken.

The immune system — unable to recognize cocaine and other drug molecules because they are so small — can't make antibodies to attack them.

To help the immune system distinguish the drug, Kosten attached inactivated cocaine to the outside of inactivated cholera proteins.

In response, the immune system not only makes antibodies to the combination, which is harmless, but also recognizes the potent naked drug when it's ingested. The antibodies bind to the cocaine and prevent it from reaching the brain, where it normally would generate the highs that are so addictive.

"It's a very clever idea," says David Eagleman, a Baylor neuroscientist. "Scientists have spent the last few decades figuring out reward pathways in the brain and how drugs like cocaine hijack the system. It turns out those pathways are difficult to rewire once they've seen the drug. But the vaccine just circumvents all that."

Kosten asked the Food and Drug Administration in December to green-light a multi-institutional trial to begin in the spring and is awaiting a response.

Approval would mark a breakthrough in the treatment of cocaine addiction, which now mostly involves psychiatric counseling and 12-step programs. It presumably would be the final clinical hurdle before the vaccine — more than a decade in the making — might be approved for treatment. But one expert warns against expecting too much.

"Addiction vaccines are a promising advance, but it's unlikely any treatment in this field will work for everyone," said Dr. David Gorelick, a senior investigator at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "Still, if they prove successful, they will give those working in drug addiction an important option." source Yahoo

TOKYO - Japan is dropping its plan to kill humpback whales in the seas off Antarctica, the country's top government spokesman said Friday.

Japan decided to suspend humpback hunts at the request of the United States, which is currently chair of the International Whaling Commission, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura.

"The government has decided to suspend hunts of humpback whales while talks to normalize IWC is taking place," Machimura said. "But there will no changes to our stance on our research whaling itself."

"The U.S. asked Japan to freeze planned humpback hunts" for one to two years to support its effort as the chairman to normalize the IWC, Machimura said.

Japan argues that the IWC has become a place for emotional fights rather the setting for calm discussion, and has called for "normalizing" reforms that would return it to that function.

Japan dispatched its whaling fleet last month to the southern Pacific in the first major hunt of humpback whales since the 1960s, generating widespread criticism.

Commercial hunts of humpbacks have been banned worldwide since 1966.

Earlier Friday, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told reporters he hoped to discuss the whale hunt and related issues with his Australian counterpart soon.

"Given that in a sense this seems to be a problem of differences in national sentiment between Japanese and Australian culture, it's not a matter that can be solved by appealing to one another through logic," Komura told reporters. "I hope to discuss possible measures with the Australian foreign minister soon."

Australia announced this week it was launching a new push to stop Japan's annual whale hunt, including sending surveillance planes and a ship to gather evidence for a possible international legal challenge.

On Wednesday, Thomas Schieffer, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, said a deal may have been struck to suspend Japan's plans to hunt 50 humpback whales in Antarctic waters.

The mission also aims to take as many as 935 minke whales and up to 50 fin whales in what Japan's Fisheries Agency says is its largest-ever scientific whale hunt.

Critics say the program is a shield for Japan to keep its whaling industry alive until it can overturn a 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

Karli Thomas, who is leading a Greenpeace expedition heading to the southern Pacific, lauded the development.

"This is good news indeed, but it must be the first step towards ending all whaling in the Southern Ocean, not just one species for one season," Thomas said in a statement from on board the group's ship, Esperanza.

JERUSALEM - Israel is examining a Hamas truce proposal delivered by Egypt, defense officials said, but violence persisted Friday as a Hamas militant was killed in what the group said was a clash with Israeli troops near the Israel-Gaza border.

Israeli calls for cease-fire talks with the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip grew Friday as an Israeli Cabinet minister said he supported such negotiations under certain conditions.

A Hamas official said the offer was part of the Islamic group's efforts to reach out not only to Israel, but also to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has controlled only the West Bank since June when Hamas ousted his Fatah party's security forces from Gaza.

Since the Hamas takeover, Abbas has rejected offers by the group to talk, insisting Hamas must first step down in Gaza. Israel has also refused to do business with the militant group, and has virtually closed all crossings with the impoverished area where 1.5 million Palestinians live, allowing in only food and humanitarian aid.

Earlier this month, Israel and Abbas' administration began the first official Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in almost seven years. But the question of what to do with the Gaza Strip plagues the negotiations on a final peace agreement, which the sides hope to complete by 2009.

Israeli defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Thursday the Hamas offer was limited to stopping the rocket fire in exchange for a halt to Israeli military operations in Gaza.

They said Hamas gave assurances it could impose the truce on the militant groups that are firing the rockets — Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees.

Israeli Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Friday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert may consider talks with Hamas on a long-term cease-fire. But, as part of such a deal, Hamas must also cease smuggling arms into the Gaza Strip and open talks for the release of an Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas-affiliated militants last year, Ben-Eliezer said.

"The prime minister I know doesn't totally rule anything out," Ben-Eliezer told Israel Radio. "If a serious, realistic proposal is put on the table and Hamas is willing to discuss a long-term cease-fire and is willing to stop the terror, to stop the smuggling and is willing to open talks on the release of Gilad Shalit, I would go to negotiations."

Olmert's office reiterated Friday that Israel is not currently holding talks with Hamas and would only consider them if the militant group renounces violence, recognizes the Jewish state and accepts peace agreements.

Hamas official Salah Bardawil said the offer by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was part of the group's general policy to close the rift with Israel and to reach out to Abbas.

"All the Palestinians are in a crisis; not Hamas," Bardawil said. "We are not lovers of war. We love our rights. If we can get them through a truce, that would be an achievement."

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the group had not yet seen any sign that Israel wants a truce.

"To this minute, what we see is Israeli aggression," Abu Zuhri said after at least six Palestinian militants were killed in clashes with Israeli troops on Thursday. "The occupation (Israel) is proving that it is not interested in any truce."

Violence continued Friday. A Hamas militant was killed by Israeli troops near the Israel-Gaza border, the group and medics said. The Israeli army spokesman's office said it was not aware of any clashes in the area.

Late Thursday, Hamas said it fired three rockets at Israel, its first such claim in weeks, putting the truce talk in doubt.

Abu Obeida of the Hamas military wing said the target of the rockets fired by Hamas was an Israeli military base. "This is a tactic of the Hamas military wing," he said. "It has nothing (to do) with a truce or escalation."

Hamas first floated the idea of a truce earlier this week when Haniyeh called an Israeli TV reporter. Previous truces have been negotiated through Egyptian mediation, but none have held for long. source Yahoo