RAMALLAH, West Bank, 11 June  — Israel welcomed yesterday CIA chief George Tenet’s blueprint for a lasting truce while the Palestinians expressed reservations about the plan, after Israeli tank fire killed three Palestinian women.

“Mr. Tenet suggested the best thing, if not the most perfect, to both sides in order to enter into an actual cease-fire,” Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told reporters.

A senior Palestinian security official said: “We submitted our written response to the American side, which included our reservations over the American document.” The official did not elaborate.

Details of the Tenet plan were not officially released, but Israeli newspapers said it called for Israel not to hit Palestinian targets, to pull troops back to positions held before the Palestinian uprising began last September and to prevent revenge attacks against Palestinians.

The blueprint also called for the Palestinian Authority to arrest Islamic Jihad and Hamas members, halt incitement and destroy mortar ammunition stockpiles, the newspaper reports said.

In addition, the plan urged Palestinians to thwart attacks against Israelis from Palestinian-ruled territory and prevent those carrying out attacks elsewhere from taking sanctuary in Palestinian Authority areas.

Israel said yesterday its security forces had arrested several Palestinians from President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office said in a statement that the group carried out six bomb attacks in three Israeli cities and a Jewish settlement in the West Bank in April.

It did not say when the arrests took place, but the statement said several members of the group were Fatah members. Six members of the cell were arrested and one person was killed when he tried to evade capture, it said.

The European Union, meanwhile, raised its profile in the US-led drive to end eight months of confrontations, holding top-level talks with Arafat and Sharon.

Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said after meeting Arafat in Ramallah he hoped the killing of the three Palestinian women on Saturday in the Gaza Strip would not destroy the truce.

The women’s deaths were the first fatalities since Arafat promised a cease-fire. Yesterday, a Palestinian wounded by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip on June 4, died of his injuries, hospital official said.

US Middle East envoy William Burns, who has been holding talks on a timetable for putting into effect the recommendations of the Mitchell Committee, issued a statement criticizing Israel and the Palestinians over the killing of the women.

“We deeply regret the death of three Palestinian women in Gaza...and offer our condolences to the families,” Burns said in a statement. “We believe that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) should ensure that the response to any gunfire emanating from Palestinian populated areas minimizes the danger to the lives and property of Palestinian civilians,” the statement said.

“At the same time, the continued shooting attacks and other violence that have resulted in several Israeli casualties over the past several days must stop,” the statement by Burns said.