Clinton began closed-door talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has staked out a tough line on carrying out the Wye River deal in a bid to keep ultra-nationalist members of his fractious coalition from toppling him.

A wave of West Bank violence clouding Clinton's peace mission, blanketed in heavy security, continued today.

A teenage Palestinian girl stabbed and wounded a 17-year-old Israeli woman at the gate of the Jewish settlement of Shavei Shomron near Palestinian-ruled Nablus, the Israeli army said.

In the Palestinian town of Bethlehem, where Clinton is due to pay a Christmas visit on Tuesday, Palestinian youths throwing stones clashed with Israeli troops who responded with teargas and rubber-coated bullets, witnesses said. The soldiers opened fire from beneath a banner that read``Bill Clinton Welcome to Palestine,'' injuring three protesters. Clashes also flared in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Neither Clinton nor Netanyahu made any comments to reporters before starting talks at the Israeli leader's Jerusalem office.

As Clinton flew to Israel late yesterday, the House of Representatives judiciary committee approved a fourth and final article of impeachment to send to the full House for a vote on Thursday.

Netanyahu is also in political jeopardy. He narrowly avoided being ousted last week when far-right deputies angry at his agreement to cede more West Bank land to Palestinian rule joined with pro-peace opposition forces upset at Netanyahu's threats not to implement the Wye accord. Casting his lot with the right-wing that brought him to power in 1996, Netanyahu has ratcheted up his rhetoric over alleged Palestinian violations of the land-for-security deal he signed with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

``Mr President, the truth must be told. In recent weeks thePalestinians have again consistently, systematically and intentionally violated all their commitments,'' Netanyahu said at a welcome ceremony for Clinton late on Saturday.

The Israeli leader suspended the Wye deal last week, alleging the Palestinian authority had orchestrated violent protests against Israel's terms for the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Israel also says the Palestine Liberation Organisation's supreme decision making body must hold a formal vote in Gaza at a historic meeting in Clinton's presence tomorrow affirming revocation of clauses in a 1960s Palestinian charter that call for Israel's destruction.

but Arafat has refused, saying the body already held such a vote in 1996. The United States has promised that Monday's meeting will take the steps required by Wye -- which calls only for the gathering to ``reaffirm'' the changes to the charter.

But there was no indication Netanyahu was interested in any US compromise on either the charter or the prisoner issue.

House panel passesfourth impeachment article

WASHINGTON: The Republican-led US House judiciary committee on Sunday passed a fourth and final impeachment article against President Clinton and rejected a Democrat-sponsored move to censure rather than impeach him, setting the stage for a full House vote next Thursday.

The deeply polarised panel voted a motion 21-16 on Saturday charging Clinton with abusing the power of his office to make false and perjurious statements to Congress on the Monica Lewinsky case in reply to 81 questions put by chairman Henry Hyde.

After hours of bitter debate, the panel, voted down 22-14 a Democrat-sponsored motion that would have allowed the House of Representatives to rebuke or censure Clinton for his wrongdoings, brushing aside a last-minute emotional plea from the president. With the committee approving all four articles, all eyes are now on the 435-member House that will decide on Thursday whether to send the case for trial to the Senate for the third time in US history.