Gaza City /Tel Aviv - Israel Navy gunboats opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast of Gaza Thursday morning, causing no fatalities but sending the fishing vessels scurrying back to shore, Israeli military officials and Palestinians said.

Palestinians said five people were injured by the Israeli gunfire.

An Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv said the Israeli ships fired "warning shots" when they noticed the Palestinian boats had sailed too far from shore.

Washington  - US President Barack Obama called four key leaders in the Middle East on Wednesday, his first full day in office, promising engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process from the start of his term as president.

Obama spoke with Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, according to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

Ramallah  - US President Barack Obama on Wednesday promised his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas to work for peace in the Middle East, according to Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh.

In a statement published on the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, Abu Rudeineh said Obama made his first call to Abbas since Obama assumed office on Tuesday, assuring the Palestinian leader that he and his administration "will do all they can to bring peace to the region."

Tel Aviv - Israel pulled the last of its soldiers out the Gaza Strip early Wednesday morning, over two and a half weeks since they were sent in as part of an intense Israeli operation against militants in the salient, a military spokesman in Tel Aviv said.

The spokesman would not give further details about the withdrawal.

Israeli troops began pulling out the Strip on Sunday evening, hours after Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire, ending its three-week-long Operation Cast Lead.

The operation, launched in response to massive rocket salvos from the salient on population centres in southern Israel, began on December 27 with a week of intense airstrikes.

Ground forces crossed into the Strip on the evening of January 3.

Gaza City  - As a tenuous ceasefire takes hold ending three weeks of fighting in the Gaza Strip, and foreign journalists begin trickling into the salient, allegations are emerging indicating that Israeli troops may have committed war crimes.

Many of the 1,415 Palestinian dead in Gaza were civilians, and although their exact numbers are difficult to ascertain, women and minors are reported to make up some 40 per cent of the total toll.

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to convene a wide-ranging international Middle East peace conference in Paris, the daily Le Figaro reported Tuesday, citing sources close to the president.

Sarkozy introduced the idea of the peace conference at Sunday's summit meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, saying that its aim would be "to finally secure peace this year."

According to Le Figaro, the first step would be a meeting of foreign minister in Egypt, which would probably take place at the beginning of February.