WASHINGTON, March 29: In comments strong on criticism of Palestinian violence, United States Secretary of State Colin Powell refused on Friday to condemn the armed Israeli incursion into Ramallah, President Yasser Arafat’s compound, where fighting raged all day.

The secretary merely said he hoped Israel would carefully consider the consequences of its actions, and revealed that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had assured him that the intention of the Israeli operation in Ramallah was not to capture or kill Yasser Arafat.

At the same time, he said, the US understood the need for Israel to defend itself against terrorist attacks.

Powell stressed that Arafat was the leader of the Palestinian people, and his leadership was now even more central to ending the current crisis. He said the US was gravely concerned at the developing situation and expected Israel to show restraint and minimize loss of life.

But the thrust of Powell’s remarks, made at a special briefing at the State Department, was directed on the need for Palestinians and President Arafat to end “terrorist’ attacks against Israel that targeted innocent civilians.

The secretary referred to the Passover suicide bombing and the bombing on Friday, and said these acts had caused the present crisis and disrupted the guarded optimism that was seen earlier this week with Israel’s readiness to abandon some of the conditions it had attached to the implementation of the Tenet security plan.

He reiterated the US insistence on Arafat moving against Palestinian groups believed to be involved in violent activities and calling on Palestinian people to stop acts of violence. Powell said US special envoy Anthony Zinni would remain in the region, and he himself (Powell) hoped to talk to Arafat later in the day.

Powell’s remarks came amidst extensive television coverage of the Israeli attack on Ramallah and the destruction wrought there by Israeli tanks and soldiers. Many buildings in the Arafat compound had been reduced to rubble.

The secretary said he had been assured by the Israeli authorities that they had no intention of staying indefinitely in Ramallah and wanted only to isolate President Arafat and arrest “terrorists.”

The situation was discussed by President Bush with his national security advisers on Friday before Powell’s briefing. The secretary declined to specify any steps that the US might consider to defuse the situation, such as the deployment of ceasefire monitors in the region, but said he was not ruling anything out.