Sharon: Israel to Continue Offensive

RAMALLAH, West Bank April 15 — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Monday that Israeli troops would press ahead with a campaign against Palestinian militants in two major West Bank towns despite U.S. pleas for a full withdrawal. Israel also grabbed a senior aide to Yasser Arafat whom Sharon says was behind suicide bombings.

But Sharon told President Bush in a telephone conversation Monday that Israeli troops would, within a week, pull out of Jenin and Nablus, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Sharon told CNN that Israeli forces would remain indefinitely in Ramallah, where they surround Palestinian leader Arafat's headquarters, and in Bethlehem until Palestinians occupying one of Christianity's holiest sites surrender for trial or exile.