Four members of the Popular Resistance Committees were detained overnight in connection with a rocket attack on Kfar Darom settlement in the Gaza Strip that led to Israeli authorities temporarily reimposing a roadblock on the main highway through the territory.

The attack triggered an official protest from Israel, whose troops withdrew from most of Gaza on Sunday after receiving security guarantees in an accord with the Palestinians.

Four major Palestinian militant groups -- including Hamas and Islamic Jihad -- called a halt to anti-Israeli attacks on Sunday, but other splinter groups have continued to carry out acts of violence.

Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas fought hard to persuade the groups to agree to a truce which remain sceptical about his efforts to forge peace with the Israelis through the framework of the US-backed roadmap.

Abbas met with senior Hamas figures here late Thursday and was due to hold a similar round of talks with Islamic Jihad leaders at around 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Friday.

Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad deny Israel's right to exist and have officially rejected the roadmap, although their agreement to halt attacks is seen as vital for it to have any chance of success.

"We will hear from Abu Mazen (Abbas' nom de guerre) about the developing situation and about his meeting with (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon" last Tuesday, senior Jihad official Mohammed al-Hindi told AFP.

"We will ask him to stop Israeli aggression and continue in his efforts to release all prisoners."

Hamas said their meeting with Abbas late Thursday was "positive".

Abbas met for two and a half hours with top Hamas official Ismail Abu Shanab, considered a moderate figure with the movement, and Mahmud Zahar.

Zahar welcomed a statement by Abbas in which he said Israel must "free Palestinian prisoners and withdraw its forces not only from Gaza, but from all Palestinian territory reoccupied" since the intifada broke out in September 2000.

An official Palestinian source said the aim of the meetings was to "move forward the inter-Palestinian dialogue and strengthen the truce".

Israelis remain deeply sceptical that the truce, which comes attached with a raft of conditions, will last.

The hardline Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, threatened Thursday to scrap the truce after one of its members was killed in a gunfight with Israeli forces.

A survey carried by Israel's top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily on Friday found that 62 percent of those polled do not believe Palestinian militant groups will respect the truce.

But Israeli army chief of staff Moshe Yaalon predicted Thursday that an end was in sight to the 33-month-old cycle of violence, which has killed nearly 3,400 people.

He also said that "in the light of the resistance shown by the Israeli people and the heroic struggle of the Tsahal (the Israeli army) against terrorism we can announce that we have won".

Moreover, the head of the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees, which carried out recent attacks in the Gaza Strip, said his group was ready to declare a truce if its detained militants were released by Israel.

"We are ready to talk with the Palestinian political leaders and, if Israel starts releasing our militants, we will immediately announce a truce like the other groups," Jamal Abu Samadana told AFP.