Filed at 7:07 a.m. ET

GAZA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, Gaza Strip (AP) -- In truce talks held at the urging of the United States, Israel and the Palestinians agreed Wednesday on a series of confidence-building measures aimed at ending a year of fighting.

The two sides said they would resume security coordination and exert maximum efforts to enforce a cease-fire. In a first gesture, Israel was to ease security closures that have severely disrupted daily life in the Palestinian areas.

Yet violence continued even as the two leaders met, underscoring the fragility of a truce. Just three miles from the meeting site, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy was killed and 11 youngsters were wounded when Israeli troops fired on a crowd of stone-throwers. Earlier, three Israeli soldiers were wounded when Palestinians set off an explosion at an army post in the same area.

Both sides approached the talks with great skepticism.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been reluctant to allow the meeting to proceed. Sharon has portrayed Arafat as an unrepentant terrorist and said he could not be trusted. The Palestinians, in turn, have been concerned that Peres, the leading dove in Sharon's government, only has a limited mandate.

A major test of the truce will come Friday when Palestinians plan to mark the first anniversary of the fighting with marches across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Traditionally, such marches have ended in confrontations with Israeli troops.

The United States hopes to calm the Mideast conflict, which threatens to get in the way of coalition-building efforts for the U.S.-led fight against international terrorism.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell repeatedly called Arafat and Sharon in recent days, urging them to hold the talks. Sharon canceled two previous sessions, arguing Arafat was not trying hard enough to contain violence.

Previous truce deals, including one negotiated by CIA chief George Tenet, have collapsed. However, there were some hopes the current cease-fire would stick. Neither Sharon nor Arafat apparently wants to be seen as defying Washington at a time of crisis.

Wednesday's meeting at Gaza International Airport lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours. At the start, Peres and Arafat briefly shook hands, without smiling or looking at each other. The meeting ended with a joint statement read by Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat.

In the statement, the leaders pledged to resume security coordination and exert maximum efforts to enforce a cease-fire, based on the terms negotiated by Tenet three months ago. At that time, the cease-fire didn't take hold.

Israel promised to ease its security closures of the Palestinian areas and redeploy forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, without giving a timetable.

Peres and Arafat also renewed their commitment to recommendations by the international Mitchell Commission on how to end the fighting and resume peace talks. A panel of senior officials from both sides will supervise the implementation of the cease-fire and the Mitchell recommendations, the statement said.

Peres and Arafat agreed to meet again in about a week.

The Mitchell Commission, which issued its report in May, spelled out a series of confidence-building steps the two sides would take over a period of several weeks, ahead of a resumption of peace talks.

The commission said the Palestinians should make a ``100 percent effort'' to prevent terrorist operations and punish perpetrators, while Israel should freeze all settlement activity and not use lethal force in dispersing unarmed Palestinian demonstrators. The commission asked Israel to lift its closures, permit Palestinians to return to their jobs in Israel and transfer to the Palestinian Authority millions of dollars in tax revenues that were withheld for the past year.

Last week, Arafat announced an informal truce and ordered his security forces to prevent attacks on Israelis. However, there have been numerous shootings since then and two Israeli women were killed by Palestinian gunmen. A Palestinian man, who according to the army was throwing a grenade at soldiers, was killed by Israeli fire in the same period.

Wednesday's fighting began when Palestinians set off a bomb at an Israeli army post on the Israeli-Egyptian border in southern Gaza, a few miles from the Gaza airport. Three soldiers were wounded, the army said.

After the attack, Israeli tanks fired at the nearby Rafah refugee camp, damaging homes, but causing no injuries, Palestinian security sources said.

As Arafat and Peres met, Palestinian teen-agers threw stones at the Israeli post where the explosion had gone off earlier in the day. Soldiers responded with tear gas and live rounds, killing a 14-year-old boy and wounding 11 other youngsters, including three who were in serious condition, Palestinian doctors said.