GAZA CITY, April 12: Israeli troops foiled a joint attack on Monday by Palestinian militants inside a Gaza Strip Jewish settlement as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was to head for talks with US President George W. Bush on his plan to withdraw from the territory.

The Israeli military initially said they had found three bodies after a lengthy armed exchange on the outskirts of Netzarim, just south of Gaza City, but later revised the number down to just one.

"Searches have finished. We have found only one body," said a spokeswoman. Sources within the Palestinian ambulance service later said that they had recovered another body just outside Netzarim.

The identity of the two slain militants was not immediately clear. In a statement issued in Gaza City, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed joint responsibility for the operation, saying their "martyrs" had engaged Israeli forces in "an armed exchange which lasted 30 minutes".

Israeli security forces have been on a heightened state of alert during the Passover holiday, which ends Monday, with Palestinian factions pledging to avenge the assassination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in an Israeli air raid three weeks ago.

A senior Israeli source serving in Gaza said that the forces had been braced for an attack but the gunmen had sought to take advantage of foggy overnight conditions, infiltrating the settlement from the north and west.-AFP