"We reject these criticisms because the quartet, and in particular the Europeans, should know that terrorism also kills innocent people on the Israeli side," an Israeli official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

"They should rather pressure (Yasser Arafat's) Palestinian Authority to make the decision to fight terrorism," he added.

"As long as the Palestinian government will not embark on the war against terrorism, we will be forced to do it for them to protect Israeli lives," he also said.

A statement read out by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan at the Jordan summit earlier said, "The Quartet expresses its deep concern over Israeli military actions that result in the killing of innocent Palestinian and other civilians."

Dozens of Palestinian bystanders and other civilians have been killed in controversial Israeli strikes targetting militants accused of planning or carrying out anti-Israeli attacks.

Arafat's top aide Nabil Abu Rudeina said Israel's reaction to the criticism was "a sign that Israel does not want to implement the roadmap," the peace plan crafted by the Quartet.

"Israel is running away from carrying out the plan and the Quartet must exert pressure so that it will implement it without any modification and dispatch international observers to guarantee this," he added.

The Quartet met Sunday, on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum gathering on the Dead Sea shore, to keep alive the roadmap, which aims to stop Israeli-Palestinian violence and create a Palestinian state by 2005.

The Israeli official also rebuffed criticism of the killing of top Hamas military chief Abdullah Qawasmeh in the southern West Bank of Hebron Saturday, which US Secretary of State Colin Powell said he regretted.

"He was a serial killer and responsible for several attacks that cost the lives of 35 Israelis and wounded another 145 people," the official said.

"He was not eliminated, but killed when an Israeli elite unit was trying to arrest him and he opened fire," he said.

"Considering the terrorist he was, we would like to know how the French, German or British authorities would have reacted if they had faced the same situation," he said.

Reports differed on whether Qawasmeh was ambushed and shot down under Israel's policy of eliminating wanted Palestinian militants, or whether he was killed in a gunbattle after refusing to surrender.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hailed the operation as "successful," adding that if the Palestinians "refuse to take responsibility" for security, "we will continue our operations to give security to the citizens of Israel."

A Hamas spokesman in Gaza warned Qawasmeh's killing "will not go unpunished."

Powell said the United States was concerned about Qawasmeh's killing, but did not want the incident to derail efforts to move ahead with the roadmap.

"I regret that once again we had an incident that could be an impediment to progress," Powell told reporters at the summit.

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