February 12, 2007	Monday	Muharram 23, 1428

JERUSALEM, Feb 11: Israel resumed digging near Jerusalem's most holy site on Sunday, as 2,000 police were out on the streets braced for a third straight day of violent demonstrations.

Proteste rs scuffled with police outside the Old City's Dung Gate, chanting over the rumble of bulldozers excavating near the revered Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third holiest shrine.

Despite the street protests and dissent from within his own governing coalition, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert refused to call off the renovations.

“Work will continue because it is a question of fixing a dangerous situation,” he said at his weekly cabinet meeting, according to army radio.

“The building site is not on the mosque compound and does not offend the sensitivities of Muslims.” Leaders of Israel's left-leaning Labour party called for the work to halt after rioting on Friday and again Saturday left dozens wounded in Jerusalem and parts of the occupied West Bank.

The unrest comes ahead of a Feb 19 summit between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Olmert as the West redoubles its efforts to revive the stagnant Middle East peace process.

Police were on high alert across the holy city for a third straight day manning checkpoints and deployed in force, implementing extraordinary procedures to maintain order.

Access to the compound -- known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as Temple Mount -- remained off limits to Muslim men under 45 and all Palestinians from the West Bank, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Checkpoints around Jerusalem remained in place to prevent Palestinians from the West Bank sneaking into the city to fuel the protests, Rosenfeld said.—AFP