Some 2,000 police officers were deployed to the Old City of Jerusalem to guard the first day of controversial excavation work in the Temple Mount area yesterday, but only a few dozen Muslims, primarily members of Israel's Islamic Movement, held a protest at the site.

A campaign in the Arab-language media to get Palestinians and Israeli Arabs to amass at the Temple Mount and "defend" the Al-Aqsa Mosque had spurred fears of possible riots, but no violence ensued.

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The Israel Antiquities Authority is carrying out the excavation work near an unused ramp leading up to the Mugrabi Gate, an entrance to the Temple Mount, which engineers have said is in danger of collapse. The dig precedes the planned construction of a new Mugrabi bridge, which is slated to replace a makeshift wooden bridge built above the ramp three years ago to connect the Old City's Dung Gate with the Mugrabi Gate.

The wooden bridge has allowed tou rists, security forces and Jewish visitors to enter the Temple Mount via the Mugrabi Gate, located next to the Western Wall. Police demanded its construction after part of the ramp buckled on a snowy night in February 2004.

The excavation is taking place alongside a salvage dig in the nearby archeological park, in one of the most sensitive spots in Israel: at the foot of the southwest corner of a wall in the Temple Mount compound.

The excavation was criticized by Israeli politicians and Muslim leaders, including the king of Jordan.

MK Talab al-Sana (United Arab List-Ta'al) said the dig could lead to the outbreak of a third intifada.

"The Israeli government is once again provoking the Muslim world and the Palestinian people, and is not sparing any effort to kindle the region by irresponsible adventures and decisions," he said.

However, Likud faction chairman MK Gideon Sa'ar said such attacks are irresponsible and serve the interests of the Islamic Movement and Hamas.

Arab leaders have argued that Israel is trying to undermine the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque to prepare the ground for the Third Temple. Israel Antiquities Authority archeologist Yuval Baruch and Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco dismissed the accusations, which have been publicized on Al-Jazeera and other media outlets.

An Israeli security official said Islamic extremists are trying to fan the flames of conflict and build their status as protectors of Islam, regardless of the reality on the ground.

The Higher Arab Monitoring Committee secretariat has called on the government to immediately stop work in the Temple Mount area and is due to meet within the next few days to discuss the excavations.

"The Israeli government will bear responsibility for activities that involve serious damage to one of the most prominent religious and national symbols of the Arabs and Muslims in the entire world," the committee said in a statement.

The Islamic Movement has called a protest for Friday in Nazareth and called on all Arab and Muslim countries to join the protest against the excavations. Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement's northern faction, led many of the protesters at the Temple Mount yesterday and has called on Muslims in Israel to stand in front of the bulldozers. Salah said the dig was an Israeli effort to take control of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Movement officials declared Friday to be a day of support for the Al-Aqsa Mosque and asked countries that have diplomatic ties with Israel to pressure it to stop the dig.

Jordan's King Abdullah II said yesterday that the excavations are "a blatant violation that is not acceptable under any pretext." The king said the activity "will only create an atmosphere that will not at all help in the success of efforts being undertaken to restore the peace process."

Some leading Israeli archeologists have also criticized the plan to rebuild the bridge, saying the bridge's pylons will damage one of the most significant archaeological parks in Israel and the world.