GAZA CITY, Nov 26: Two top US diplomats arrived in Israel on Monday to start a peace mission as violence continued across the region, after a Palestinian suicide bomber injured two Israeli troops and extremists claimed a bomb attack on Israel’s chief of staff.

As the death toll of the 14-month Palestinian uprising neared 1,000, US Assistant Secretary of State William Burns and retired general Anthony Zinni arrive in Israel to push for a ceasefire that will hold on the ground, unlike a rash of failed truces before.

Their task will be hampered by an explosion of unrest in recent days that has seen six Palestinian children killed, Israeli helicopters assassinate a leading guerilla and strafe towns in the Gaza Strip, and an Israeli soldier slain by a mortar bomb.

There was no sign of the killing letting up ahead of their arrival, with a Palestinian suicide bomber blowing himself up near a border post on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, slightly injuring two Israeli soldiers.

That attack, claimed by the Hamas, came shortly after a faction of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement said they had planted two bombs which detonated near the convoy of General Shaul Mofaz, Israel’s chief of staff.

Sources close to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said on Monday that he had assigned General Meir Dagan, who has similar right-wing views, to head a negotiating team to meet with the Palestinians and the US envoys.

And Israeli and Palestinian security officials met “in a positive atmosphere” on Sunday evening in the presence of US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials, ahead of the US visit, an Israeli defence official said.

ISRAELI MINISTER SCEPTICAL: An Israeli minister on Monday said he was “deeply sceptical” that a high-level US peace delegation would meet with success.