Powell plays down hopes as his Mideast peace mission nears end

US Secretary of State Colin Powell played down hopes of a Middle East ceasefire, saying he had made progress but might not have a truce in hand when he wraps up his peace mission Wednesday.

The Palestinians dismissed Powell's "progress" report, insisting that until Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ends his army's offensive in the West Bank and pulls back troops, talk of a breakthrough was out of the question.

Powell, who met with Sharon for a third time on Tuesday, will leave the region Wednesday morning after another round of talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. He will stop in Cairo on the way back to Washington.

He has been trying to get Sharon to end the devastating offensive, and pushed Arafat to stop suicide bombings and attacks that have killed scores of Israeli civilians.

Sharon announced a limited withdrawal on Monday.

But Israeli troops tightened their grip on the West Bank with a raid on a Nablus refugee camp, where a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead, and an in-and-out incursion in Tulkarem, a town Israel withdrew from last week.

They also moved into two villages near Bethlehem and arrested a number of Palestinians, residents said.

And in Hebron, a soldier shot and fatally wounded a young Palestinian after he tried to stab a colleague