Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said Tuesday that Israel would not implement an agreement allowing Palestinians to travel in bus convoys between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank until the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) stops rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.

"Israel has no intention of allowing passage to Palestinian convoys from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank... while the PNA is not acting against Qassam rocket fire," Halutz told the Knesset ( parliament) Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Israel passed a similar message to foreign diplomats on Friday, citing security considerations and saying it has no intention of implementing the agreement until "better times".

But David Welch, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, told international representatives that the Americans are determined to see the convoys run by Dec. 15, as called for in the agreement.

Israel's security cabinet decided last week to suspend talks with the PNA on operating the bus convoys in the wake of the suicide bombing in Netanya on Dec. 5.

According to the Nov. 15 agreement brokered by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the bus convoys were slated to start operating on Thursday, and truck convoys were to begin in mid- January.

Source: Xinhua