Protesters, Israeli Troops Clash : Mideast: One man dies at march for Palestinian prisoners. Bomber kills himself, injures three soldiers.

In a violent Sunday, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian demonstrator during a second day of protests in the West Bank and a bomber blew up a donkey cart loaded with explosives at a military checkpoint in the Gaza Strip, killing himself and injuring three soldiers.

But hopeful news for the Middle East peace process emerged Sunday from a three-hour meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat. Peres reported some progress at overcoming hurdles in negotiations aimed at widening Palestinian self-rule, and he said it is still possible to reach an accord by Saturday, the target date.

The West Bank protests, which began a day earlier with several bloody clashes that injured 18, resumed Sunday as demonstrators pressed demands for the release of about 5,500 Palestinian prisoners still held in Israeli jails.

Several thousand demonstrators gathered Sunday in downtown Nablus, about 30 miles north of Jerusalem, for a march to the Jneid Prison. Israeli troops blocked the route and, facing stone-throwing protesters, fired tear gas and percussion grenades before opening fire with live ammunition.

A 23-year-old university student was slain, and more than 50 people were wounded. Palestinian leaders in Nablus declared today a day of mourning and called for a general strike by Palestinians on Tuesday.

Arafat raised the issue of political prisoners and renewed West Bank clashes with Peres on Sunday, and he said he thanked Peres “for his efforts to release some of our prisoners gradually.” Peres said that an Israeli ministerial committee is expected to meet later this week “to try to release some prisoners,” but he didn’t say how many.

Of the 5,500 Palestinians in Israeli jails, the PLO contends that about 1,700 should qualify for release under peace agreements reached thus far. Israel has released about 4,000 prisoners since self-rule was negotiated for Gaza and the West Bank city of Jericho.

Shortly before the Arafat-Peres meeting, a member of Hamas, as the militant Islamic Resistance Movement is known, detonated a donkey cart loaded with explosives in an area of Jewish settlements in the southern Gaza Strip, killing himself and his donkey and slightly wounding three Israeli soldiers sitting nearby.

The attack came three days after two unidentified gunmen in Palestinian-controlled Gaza shot and killed a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group. Palestinian police blamed Israel for the death of Mahmoud Khawaja, but Israel has denied involvement.

Islamic Jihad and Hamas have been responsible for suicide bombings that have killed more than 70 Israelis in the past 15 months. And Islamic Jihad has threatened to avenge Khawaja’s death.

Although the dispute over political prisoners has threatened to set back peace talks, Peres said after his meeting with Arafat that “we are narrowing the gaps very much” and that agreement on expanding the self-rule area could be completed by the target date “if everything goes as it should.”

Marwan Kanafani, Arafat’s spokesman, was less sanguine, but he said it was a positive sign that Peres had asked for the high-level meeting to work through the differences.

“The level of negotiations has been raised so we can get out of the deadlock,” he told reporters.