TEL AVIV, Oct 25: Israeli forces withdrew from a besieged West Bank village on Thursday as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, facing intense US pressure, called a high-level meeting to consider a further pullout from Palestinian areas.

It was the strongest sign yet that Israel was beginning to bow to demands from the United States, its guardian ally, to remove its troops and tanks from Palestinian-ruled territory reoccupied last week.

Washington has been trying to calm a year of Israeli-Palestinian clashes as it seeks to bolster Arab support for Western military strikes against Afghanistan.

But Israel’s fierce military offensive in response to the assassination of a far-right cabinet member has strained relations with the United States, which fears it could undermine efforts to forge a global anti-terror coalition.

Israeli forces withdrew from the Palestinian village of Beit Reema before dawn, one day after launching a deadly raid that Israel called an anti-terrorist operation and the Palestinian Authority condemned as a massacre.

The Israeli army said it killed five Palestinian guerillas in Wednesday’s raid to “root out militants” and arrest those involved in last week’s assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.

But Palestinian officials said the dead were all members of Palestinian security forces. One villager said the men were killed as they slept.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo accused Sharon of pursuing “a policy of massacres against the Palestinian people”.

Also on Thursday, Israeli soldiers inside Palestinian-ruled Bethlehem shot dead a member of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s elite Force 17.

US WANTS ISRAEL TO “LOWER THE FLAMES”: Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, returning from talks in Washington where he heard demands from President George Bush, said he hoped all the troops could leave within days.