Armed man enters UK embassy car park in Tel Aviv

JERUSALEM, Aug 31 (Reuters) An armed man identified by Israeli media as a Palestinian informer shunned by his former handlers and his own people broke into the British embassy's car park in Tel Aviv today demanding asylum in Britain.

No hostages were taken and no shots fired as Israeli security forces surrounded the car park and snipers took up positions.

''We are attempting to solve the situation peacefully and calmly.

There has been no initial danger to any of the individuals working inside the embassy,'' police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

''We know the individual. He's seeking asylum through the British embassy ... and is armed with a pistol,'' Rosenfeld said.

Israeli media said the man was threatening to kill himself. They identified him as a Palestinian from the West Bank who worked briefly as an informer for Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency and has been living illegally in the Jewish state.

Israel's Channel 2 television said the man had a falling out with the Shin Bet and recently sought to return to his hometown of Ramallah in the West Bank.

He was told by Palestinians in the town he would be killed as a collaborator once he came home unless he carried out an attack against Israelis, the report said.

Explaining why he was seeking foreign asylum, the man said in a telephone call broadcast on Channel 2 that his only other option would have been to agree to the conditions for his safe return to the West Bank.

''No one wanted to help me. What could I do? Carry out an attack and kill Jews?'' he asked.

Israeli media said that after breaking into the gated car park, the Palestinian had asked to meet the British ambassador and then to be taken to the airport and flown to Britain.

Reporting from the scene, a correspondent for Channel 10 television news said the man had telephoned him and other Israeli journalists recently to say he was about to do something ''extreme'' because he had been abandoned by his handlers.

The correspondent said he and other reporters who received similar calls had informed the Shin Bet and police about the warning.

Reuters AB VV2244