Olmert spurns bid to reconsider Jerusalem dig

JERUSALEM, Feb 8 (Reuters) Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has spurned a call to consider halting excavation work near Jerusalem's most sensitive shrine, which has angered Muslims and threatened a Gaza ceasefire deal.

Palestinians have warned Israel the work near a compound housing the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site, could derail a shaky truce in Gaza with the Jewish state.

Militant group Islamic Jihad said it fired rockets from Gaza at Israel today, which caused no serious damage, in response to the work.

Arab states have asked Israel to halt the digging, which began on Tuesday, saying it could damage the mosque's foundations.

Israel has said the dig in search of ancient artefacts beneath the compound, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount, would not harm the sacred site in Jerusalem's walled Old City, at the heart of Arab-Israeli conflict.

A Palestinian uprising began in 2000 after then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon toured the compound.

Israeli Deputy Defence Minister, Ephraim Sneh, said Defence Minister Amir Peretz asked Olmert to reassess the excavation.

''He (Peretz) did not request the work be stopped,'' Sneh said. ''He asked for a discussion to reconsider (the issue).'' ''Our problem with the work at the Temple Mount ... is its effect on our relations with important, moderate elements in the Arab world who are very angered by it,'' he told Israel Radio.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper said Peretz had written to Olmert yesterday calling for an immediate halt to the work, fearing it could trigger violence.

An Israeli official confirmed Peretz had written to Olmert, adding that ''we are continuing the work''.

Olmert's office said in a response: ''A thorough examination of the matter would reveal that nothing about the work underway will harm anyone, and there is no truth in the contentions against the work.'' The Old City is part of East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after the 1967 WAsia War in a step that has not been recognised internationally. Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future state.

FEARS OF VIOLENCE Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction said any damage to the mosque ''will lead to a termination'' of a November ceasefire deal that has largely calmed Israeli-Palestinian violence in the Gaza border area. The governing Hamas movement said it would spark a ''volcano of anger''.

Israel's opening of an entrance to an archaeological tunnel near Haram al-Sharif in 1996 triggered Palestinian protests and led to clashes in which 61 Arabs and 15 Israeli soldiers were killed.

Israeli police have reinforced patrols in the Old City and restricted access to the mosque area to Palestinian men over the age of 45, in a bid to prevent violence, a spokesman said, after Islamic leaders urged followers to defend the compound.

Police said they have arrested 30 people in disturbances in the holy city since Tuesday and many are still detained.

''There is no doubt that tomorrow will be the test,'' Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco told Army Radio, referring to Muslim prayers tomorrow.

The work is part of preliminary excavations which aim to build a pedestrian bridge leading up to Haram al-Sharif. Israeli officials have said the project is essential as an existing ramp leading up to the complex was considered unsafe for use after it was damaged by a snowstorm and an earthquake in 2004.

''I turn to Olmert to think anew,'' Sheikh Abdallah Nimr Darwish, head of Israel's Islamic Movement, told Israel Radio.

Referring to Olmert's planned February 19 peace talks with Abbas and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Darwish said: ''Whoever wants to speak about peace does not excavate anywhere in the area around the holy al-Aqsa mosque.'' Reuters SSC GC1713