JENIN, Jan 2: Palestinians in a flashpoint West Bank city now separated from Israel by a controversial barrier awoke on Friday to a rare sight - streets empty of Israeli forces who had lifted a long encirclement.

The army said removal of the "closure" it imposed on Jenin in August after a truce declared by Palestinian factions collapsed was "in keeping with assessments of the security situation".

Jenin, a hotbed of militants and the scene of heavy fighting in April 2002, has been surrounded by Israeli forces for the better part of three years since the beginning of the intifada in Sept 2000.

Residents said routes were opened between the city's eight entrances and surrounding villages after Israeli troops dismantled roadblocks and tanks pulled back. The West Bank barrier, which Israel says is stopping suicide bombers from reaching its cities, looms several kilometres to the north and northwest.

Palestinians call the project, which has drawn international condemnation, a land grab aimed at denying them the contiguous state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Israel is meant to ease restrictions on Palestinians under the U.S.-backed roadmap, bogged down by persistent violence and the failure of either side to take promised steps.

Palestinians are supposed to crack down on militant factions while Israel freezes settlement growth on territory captured in the 1967 war and dismantles unauthorized outposts.

Jenin's Palestinian governor, Ramadan al Batta, said the Israeli army's decision was made without any security coordination with his side and he feared this reflected a new Israeli unilateralism that would marginalize Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has told Palestinians that if they do not stop attacks and enter talks within a few months, Israel will unilaterally draw security boundaries stripping them of some of the land they seek for a viable state.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei and Egyptian mediators have failed so far to coax Palestinian militant factions into a truce with Israel to help redeem the roadmap.

"The battle for God will continue in all forms and in every place in Palestine," Ramadan Shalah, an Islamic Jihad leader, told thousands of rallying group activists by phone, filtered through loudspeakers, from an unspecified location abroad. By "Palestine" he meant the West Bank, Gaza and Israel alike.

"To those who talk about a ceasefire or calm, I say, 'You should save your efforts'. Don't work on behalf of our enemy to take away the weapons from our people," Mr Shalah said.-Reuters