Israel has cancelled a preparation meeting for the Oct. 2 summit meeting between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, senior government officials said on Sunday.

Israeli media reports quoted the officials as saying that a meeting intended to prepare for the Oct. 2 summit between Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Dov Weissglas, senior adviser to the Israeli prime minister, has been cancelled.

The cancellation was announced after the Palestinian Legislative Council (parliament) postponed a no-confidence vote against the government of Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei because of a surge of violence with Israel.

The debate had been postponed due to Israeli air strikes and closures to Gaza after Palestinian militants fired dozens of rockets at Israel.

In the widest arrest raid since a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip on Sept. 12, Israeli forces arrested 207 members of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) in the West Bank on late Saturday and early Sunday.

The arrest was Israel's biggest crackdown since Sharon and Abbas agreed on a ceasefire in February that paved the way for Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.

The overnight raid came as the Israeli security cabinet approved late Saturday the use of artillery fire against Palestinian rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip in response to the barrage of rocket attacks on the southern Israeli city of Sderot over the weekend.

The cabinet also decided to resume air strikes and targeted assassinations against Hamas members.

It also ratified Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz's proposal that Israel Defenses forces create buffer zones within the Gaza Strip in areas near the border between Gaza and Israel in order to keep rocket launchers away from Israeli communities.

Sharon said on Sunday that he had ordered Israeli forces to use "all means" to stop rocket attacks launched by Palestinian militants.

"I have ordered that there be no limitation regarding use of all means to hit the terrorists, the men of the terror organizations, to hit them, their equipment and their hideouts," Sharon told the cabinet's weekly session.

"The order is unequivocal," he stressed.

Source: Xinhua