WASHINGTON, October 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was scheduled to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush Wednesday, October 16, to assure him that he will “show restraint” in handling the Palestinian crisis so as not to disrupt any U.S. military attack on Iraq. Meanwhile, Israeli machinegun fire wounded 16 Palestinians, including nine children in Gaza.

An Israeli official told Agence France-Press (AFP), on condition of anonymity, that, "the meeting with Bush will concentrate on the type of Israeli reaction in case of Iraqi aggression.

"There will not be automatic reprisals and we think, anyway, that the chances are not strong that [Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein will order missile attacks against us," said the official.

But as the Bush administration has yet to decide on military action and with Sharon’s call’s for less "babble" on the issue, little may emerge from the meeting on how far the Israeli leader is willing to go to appease his country's main ally, reports news agencies.

Following U.S. criticism of the 10-day siege of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority headquarters last month - aborted due to U.S. pressure - and Israeli military incursions that have cost Palestinian civilian lives, Sharon has indicated that he is ready to reduce the pressure.

The United States has called on Israel to ease the humanitarian plight and tough sanctions imposed on the Palestinian territories so that Washington can counter criticism from Arab countries that it needs in the attack against Iraq.

"It is Israel's responsibility to remember the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people, to ease some of the provisions that have been put in place that hinder humanitarian help for the Palestinian people," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

The United States was also looking for an easing of roadblocks in the West Bank and Gaza strip that have been wreaking havoc on the Palestinian economy.

In exchange for all this, Washington will agree to alert Tel Aviv 72-hours before it strikes Iraq in addition to bombing the western region of Iraq where Baghdad is suspected of hiding Scud missiles capable of striking Israel, according to Israeli press reports.

The United States will also pledge to give Tel Aviv access to a satellite alert system which would give the Jewish state a seven minute warning after the launch of an Iraqi missile.

Sharon has not explicitly stated how Israel would react if Iraq launched missiles at Israel as it did during the 1991 Gulf War. Israel refrained from retaliatory measures during that conflict.

"Sharon will seek maneuvering room with regard to Israeli retaliation if Israel is hit with [Iraqi] chemical or biological weapons and freedom to respond to [Palestinian] terror attacks," one official said.

Sharon said last week "if Israel is attacked, it will protect its citizens." But he also said in an earlier newspaper interview that Israel might not retaliate if casualties from a missile strike were low, reports news agencies.

Israel reasons that this time around, it has more room to maneuver if Saddam Hussein were to attack Israel as the United States will not be in active alliance with Arab armies as it was in 1991, and Israel now has what it says is a far more effective anti-missile system, the Arrow, developed in cooperation with the United States, than the Patriot missile system, used to protect Israel from incoming Iraqi scuds in the Gulf War.

This is Sharon's seventh U.S. visit since taking office in March 2001. Arafat has yet to be invited to visit the White House since the ascendancy of the Bush administration.

Bush has also demanded reform and a change of leadership among Palestinians as conditions for resuming talks on statehood, reports news agencies.

Sharon’s visit began Tuesday, October 15, with a meeting with national security advisor Condoleezza Rice. On Thursday, October 17, he will see Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Israel wants a "perfect coordination" between its campaign against Palestinian “extremists” - which has angered Arab nations - and the U.S. “effort” against Iraq, said an Israeli official before Sharon left occupied Jerusalem.

The prime minister has not ordered major reprisals for recent attacks blamed on the Palestinian resistance.

"We have no intention of launching an offensive that would inflame the region nor, for example, to reoccupy the Gaza Strip," said the Israeli official.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, on his part, said in France that Israeli troops could withdraw from Al-Khalil (Hebron) by the end of this week if the conditions were right.

The United States has also urged Israel to speed up the payment of $420 million due to the Palestinian Authority. Israel has decided to make a fourth payment of $15 million, the official said.

Meanwhile on the ground, Israeli machinegun fire wounded 16 Palestinians, including nine children, on Wednesday in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said.

Two tanks opened fire without provocation after rumbling a few meters (yards) up Rafah's main boulevard, Salahedin street, which sits on the Gaza Strip's Israeli-controlled border with Egypt, the sources said.

Six people were immediately hit, including a 12-year-old boy Ahmed Abu al-Shahar and 53-year-old Ahmed Asfour who were both struck in the head and were seriously wounded, security and medical sources added.

The gunfire hit several houses and a UN-administered school for Palestinian refugees and triggered clashes between soldiers and Palestinian youths that left another six people wounded, including an 11-year-old boy who was shot in the head and a three-year-old hit in the leg, the sources said.

Both were listed in serious condition, the source added.

Gunmen started firing on the soldiers and tanks lobbed at least one shell in the