Tensions over the complex containing al-Aqsa mosque and the Western wall have boiled over into rioting several times in the past two weeks.

Police and rock-throwing Palestinians clashed on Sunday and Monday at the religious site and in East Jerusalem.

Palestinian officials accused Israel of trying to "Judaize" Jerusalem.

The religious site, known as Temple Mount to Jews and Haram al-Sharif to Palestinians is hotly contested and was the flashpoint that led to the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which broke out in 2000.

"Several thousand" Israeli police were on the streets on Tuesday ahead of a march in Jerusalem as part of activities marking the Jewish festival of Sukkot, a police spokesman said.

About 30 people were injured in riots there a week ago, when Palestinians began stoning a group of visitors who entered the complex.

The Israeli police say they were French tourists, but Palestinians initially said they were extremist Jews and rumours have persisted that right-wingers intend to march on the mosque.

Days of clashes

On Monday, minor clashes broke out at the mosque, although tens of thousands of Jewish worshippers attended a blessing ceremony at the Western Wall for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot without major incident.

Police said they closed the mosque to male worshippers under 50 after finding wheelbarrows full of stones inside the complex.

Elsewhere in Jerusalem, an Israeli policeman was stabbed in the neck while carrying out an inspection on a bus.

Reports said youths began throwing stones after a Palestinian was arrested in connection with the attack.

Young men also threw stones at police at the Qalandia checkpoint, the main crossing between the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

On Sunday, at least five Palestinians and four Israeli police were injured in clashes, again after police limited access to the mosque.

In an escalating war of words, the Palestinian Authority vowed to "confront" Israel over its plans to "take over Jerusalem and Judaize it".

Negotiator Saeb Erekat accused Israeli of "lighting matches in the hope of sparking a fire, deliberately escalating tensions in occupied East Jerusalem".

Palestinian frustration

On Monday the Jerusalem district police commander Aharon Franco accused Palestinians in the city of being "ungrateful" by causing trouble during the Jewish holidays after the Muslim fasting holy month of Ramadan passed peacefully.

Police believe the northern branch of the Islamic Movement - an Israeli-Arab Islamist political group that has often in the past been accused of incitement - is behind the clashes.

However, they come at a time of wider growing frustrations among Palestinians.

US attempts to restart peace talks appear to have stalled over Israel's refusal to halt settlement building in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem where the Palestinians want the capital of a future state.

The government of Israel's right wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has allowed Jewish building and demolitions of Palestinian homes built without permits to continue in East Jerusalem.

He has made clear he is strongly opposed to any division of Jerusalem and does not regard Jewish homes and areas there as settlements, although under international law the area is considered part of the occupied West Bank.

Unofficial reports from the trilateral meeting last month between Mr Netanyahu, Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas and US President Barack Obama suggested that the US had softened its demand for a total building freeze.

Also, last week, amid Israeli and US pressure, the Palestinian Authority apparently dropped its call for UN members states to back a report that was highly critical of Israel's conduct during its operation in Gaza earlier this year - drawing angry criticism from many Palestinians.