Assassination scare for Sarkozy and wife Carla as policeman shoots himself in the head just yards away

The French president apparently did not hear the shooting at Israel's Ben-Gurion airport, which happened while a band was playing, but was rushed on to his plane by bodyguards.

Security scare: French president Nicolas Sarkozy with wife Carla Bruni yesterday

Alert: French First Lady Carla Bruni reacts as security forces surround her and the French president

In a panic his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, rushed up the stairs ahead of him.

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and president Shimon Peres, who were also at the ceremony to mark the end of Sarkozy's three-day visit to their country, were whisked away to their cars by security with guns drawn.

But minutes later the drama was over, and Olmert returned and boarded the plane to tell Sarkozy what had happened. The dead policeman's body lay on the tarmac, covered with a sheet.

An Israeli police spokesman said: 'We are currently investigating the circumstances to see whether it was suicide or if he accidentally discharged his weapon.'

Witnesses said the man fell from a roof after shooting himself. He was at least 100 yards away from Sarkozy's plane.

A security guard rushes a panicked Carla Bruni up the stairs to the waiting plane as husband Nicolas is shielding by another guard at the bottom

The shooting was a dramatic end to a what had been a successful visit aimed mainly at cementing improved relations between France and Israel after years of frosty diplomacy.

Sarkozy, whose maternal grandfather was a Greek Jew, repeatedly called himself-a 'friend of Israel' during the visit and showered praise on the Jewish state.

'On behalf of France, we would like to declare our true love to Israel - we love you!' he said yesterday, at a meeting with French and Israeli businessmen.

Earlier that day, in Bethlehem, Sarkozy had warned that Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank would not guarantee its security for ever.

Sarkozy spoke at a news conference alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, following his only meeting with Palestinian leaders during his visit

On Monday, he told the Israeli parliament that there could be no Middle East peace unless Israel halted its West Bank settlement construction and shared the city of Jerusalem with the Palestinians.

Armed Israeli security guards leap into action as the fatal shot is fired

To safety: Security guards surround Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

The suicide came today as militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip fired several rockets into southern Israel, breaching a five-day-old ceasefire after Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

"This is a blatant violation of the calm, and we will weigh options," an aide quoted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as saying after the rockets struck.

The Egyptian-brokered truce, which took effect last Thursday, calls on Hamas to prevent cross-border fire from the Gaza Strip, which it seized by force a year ago.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, calling it a "first response" to Israel's killing overnight of a local commander of the militant group and another Palestinian, who was affiliated to Hamas, in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas official, responded by urging "all Palestinian factions to abide by the calm agreement", adding: "Hamas is keen to maintain the deal."

The ceasefire, under which Israel agreed to halt its own operations in the Gaza Strip and to ease its economic blockade of the impoverished enclave, does not apply to the West Bank.

An Israeli police spokesman said at least three makeshift rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip and one hit a house in the border town of Sderot. No one was seriously hurt.

The rockets landed in Israel only hours after Olmert thanked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in talks in Egypt for brokering the ceasefire, which came into effect on Thursday.

The Nablus operation was the first fatal Israeli raid since the truce took hold in Gaza. Similar West Bank operations and Palestinian rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip led to the breakdown of previous truce deals.

Islamic Jihad said Tarek Juma Abu Ghali, killed in Nablus, was one of its most senior commanders in the northern West Bank.

Nablus Governor Jamal Muheisen called the raid in the city an "unjustified crime" but said he did not believe it would threaten the Gaza truce.

Officials on both sides said from the start that they doubted the truce in the Gaza Strip would last.