The World Court, the UN's highest judicial arm, branded the barrier illegal and called for its removal in a non-binding opinion last week rejected by Israel and hailed by Palestinians.

Two senior US security envoys were to see Prime Minister Ariel Sharon shortly about the repercussions of the World Court decision, unauthorised Jewish settlement outposts in the West Bank, and his plan to withdraw settlers from occupied Gaza.

In the northern West Bank town of Jenin yesterday, a local leader of the radical Palestinian movement Islamic Jihad was killed by Israeli troops.

Numan Tahaineh, 38, was killed in his car in an "assassination operation" by Israel, which has carried out numerous targeted killings of Palestinian militants during the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Another man in the same car suffered gunshot wounds and was arrested by the army along by with another three men.

The attack followed a raid by Israeli armored vehicles in Jenin earlier in the day, with troops storming the hospital and other buildings, according to an AFP correspondent and Palestinian security sources.

Meanwhile, an Israeli security source said yesterday redrafted Defence Ministry guidelines for the barrier -- a 100-metre (330-foot)-wide swathe of razor-fringed fencing and concrete walls -- would have it run "as close as possible" to the Israeli-West Bank boundary.

The barrier henceforth should not isolate nearby Palestinian farmers from olive and citrus groves or maroon villages in enclaves without free access to essential services like schools and hospitals, markets and West Bank cities, the source said.

"These are the new guidelines the Defence Ministry intends to operate with. We are obeying our own High Court, not The Hague (World Court)," he told Reuters.

"But it's also a way of deflecting future international pressure on us (to tear down the barrier). It's an important step after The Hague."

(Reuters/ AFP)