JERUSALEM Ñ Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed to a U.S.-brokered timetable to implement the recommendations of the commission headed by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell.

Israel and the PA have agreed to a violence-free week immediately followed by a six-week cooling-down period and an unspecified period of confidence building measures.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Yasser Arafat and announced the agreement following the meetings.

''It will work if we can get the violence ended,'' Powell said.

For his part, Sharon reiterated that Israel would not negotiate with the Palestinians as long as the violence continued.

''Israel is committed to peace,'' Sharon said. ''We are all committed to peace.''

Powell also called for peacekeeping observers to monitor the situation but he stressed he was referring to non-military U.S. observers.

'There will be a need for monitors and observers to see what is happening," Powell said in his discussions with Arafat.

Israel has consistently opposed the presence of observers in the region and Sharon said that Powell did not raise the issue of observers with him. However, the PA has repeatedly called for international peacekeeping troops to be deployed in the area.

As Powell continued to meet with Arafat in Ramallah, an Israeli woman was killed and a second settler injured when their cars were ambushed near the West Bank town of Jenin.

"This is a solitary incident and we don't allow it," Jibril Rajoub, head of PA security in the West Bank, said.

Arafat said he would arrest the attacker but at the same time, he repeated that he would not arrest Hamas and Jihad members implicated in attacks on Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This remains one of Israel's conditions for the continuaton of negotiations with the PA.

Palestinians continued to fire on Israeli army positions near Jenin after the shooting. Two weeks ago, Israel removed the army position on the Jenin junction as a concession to the Palestinian Authority.

In Beirut, Hizbullah leaders denied Thursday's statement to the daily Al Mustaqbal by Naoto Amaki, Japan's ambassador to Lebanon, that Israeli captives in Hizbullah's hands are in good health.

"Religion, ethics and interests prevent the organization from acting well towards the captives," Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said in a statement released by Hizbullah.

For his part, Sharon reiterated Israel's policy that the violence would have to completely abate for any negotiations with the Palestinians to begin.

"We are steadfast in our policy that there should be a complete cessation [of violence] -- not one hundred percent effort but one hundred percent results," Sharon said. "I have committed myself to avoid war. There will not be war, there will not be escalation, nor slippage. We are all committed to peace and of course, I, who saw all the wars, knows the importance of peace. We have accepted the Mitchell report and all its detailed phases and we accepted the plan of [CIA Director] George Tenet which deals with the first stage which is a ceasefire."

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