Palestinian Cabinet to Hold Elections

The Qureia-Rice meeting also was expected to focus on President Bush's statement last month that Israel would not be expected to give up all its West Bank settlements or take in Palestinian refugees under any final peace deal. Qureia has said he would ask Rice to help get the "road map" peace deal back on track.

"The road map should not be taken hostage by the Israeli mood and the Israeli plans, which are based on expropriating more Palestinian land and limiting the Palestinian national rights," he told reporters earlier this week.

Also Monday, Israeli troops using bulldozers demolished 13 Palestinian homes along a Gaza road, a day after Palestinian gunmen ambushed Jewish settlers there during an outdoor memorial service at the spot where an Israeli family was killed last week. About 75 Palestinians were left homeless, all members of the same clan.

"They left nothing for us," said Yousef Abu Hadaf, one of the home owners.

The Israeli military said the houses were torn down because they had served as cover for the gunmen.

No Israelis were injured in Sunday's attack, but automatic fire kept dozens of settlers, including terrified toddlers, pinned to the ground for 20 minutes. Many crouched behind cars during the battle, before racing to nearby armored buses.

Israeli soldiers killed at least one gunman and were searching the area for the body of the second gunman. The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the shooting.

Several dozen settlers had attended the roadside memorial for Tali Hatuel and her four daughters, ages 2 to 11, who were killed in an ambush last week.

Meanwhile, Palestinian vandals with axes and shovels desecrated or destroyed 32 graves in a Commonwealth military cemetery in Gaza City. Photographs of U.S. and British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners were stuck to some of the tombstones. "We will take revenge," was written on one tombstone.

The British consulate in Jerusalem said it was investigating the incident.

About 3,000 Commonwealth soldiers killed in World War I, including Muslims, Christians and Jews from 17 countries, are buried in the plot in Gaza City.

"Our religion as Muslims and our tradition as Palestinians forbid such acts," said Issam Jaradeh, a caretaker at the cemetery.

Reports of abuse in American-run prisons in Iraq have reverberated throughout the Arab world and have further intensified anti-Western sentiment.