Powell cancels Arafat meeting after suicide bombing

11:45 am

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has cancelled a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat after a woman suicide bomber killed six Israelis early today (NZT).

"In light of today's developments, the secretary will not be meeting with Chairman Arafat Saturday," US spokesman Richard Boucher said.

But a senior State Department official told reporters on condition of anonymity that the meeting could be rescheduled. "Sunday is a possibility," he said.

Boucher said Powell wanted Arafat to condemn the attack but did not say it was a condition for the meeting. "The secretary condemns in the strongest possible terms today's terrorist attack and expects Chairman Arafat to do so as well," he said.

The State Department spokesman, travelling with Powell on a crisis Middle East mission, said Powell would meet aid workers in Jerusalem on Saturday to investigate humanitarian problems in the West Bank following Israel's incursions into Palestinian towns.

The woman suicide bomber killed six Israelis and wounded nearly 90 at a Jerusalem market confronting US Secretary of State Colin Powell with the grim reality of the Middle East as he began a peace mission.

The Palestinian attack in the heart of Jewish west Jerusalem, plus Israeli defiance of Washington's demands for an end to its West Bank offensive, plunged Powell deep into the Middle East crisis less than a day into his high-profile mission.

The powerful blast just outside the Mahane Yehuda market, packed with shoppers ahead of the Jewish Sabbath, left the area strewn with blood, body parts, shattered glass and charred fruits and vegetables.

"It sounded like a mountain exploded. The ground was moving. People ran away, screaming," a municipal worker, who identified himself only as Gilad, said.

Powell, seeking to end 18 months of violence, got a bird's eye view of the aftermath from aboard a military helicopter. He was taking off on a tour of the tense Israel-Lebanon border as the blast occurred and made a detour to hover over the scene.

The political fallout was immediate. The White House demanded that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat condemn the attack.

The explosion rocked Jerusalem just hours after Powell held talks in the city with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on ending a two-week-old Israeli offensive in the West Bank -- something the Israeli leader has refused to do despite repeated US demands.

"I condemn the terrorists for this act. It illustrates the dangerous situation that exists here," Powell said.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a group linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility, and a senior Palestinian official said it appeared to be revenge for Israel's assault on Palestinian cities.

Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy said the young woman first headed for the open-air market -- a frequent target of suicide bombers -- but changed course upon seeing police guarding the entrance and set off her bomb at a nearby bus stop.

At least three other Palestinian women have carried out suicide bombings against Israelis during the 18-month-old Palestinian uprising against occupation.

In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: "The president was very troubled by what happened this morning, and the president expects Yasser Arafat to denounce this... attack, to step up and show leadership".

Fleischer said: "There are clearly people in this region who want to disrupt Secretary Powell's mission".

What Powell saw and heard today could well test Washington's commitment to mediating a conflict that has spiralled to new levels of violence.

In initial talks with Sharon, Powell failed to secure a firm timetable for an end to Israel's military campaign.

In a sign of how badly the situation has deteriorated, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the Security Council on Friday to consider an armed international force for the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in a television interview to be broadcast in the United States there would never be peace as long as Yasser Arafat was the leader of the Palestinian people.

The 73-year-old former army general also accused world leaders of turning a blind eye to Palestinian suicide bombings and said that proved Israel must defend itself regardless of international criticism.

"With him (Arafat) we cannot reach any settlement, therefore I believe that it should have been an effort to find somebody else with whom it would be possible," Sharon said, according to a transcript of the interview made available before broadcast.

Sharon said Arafat had shown his unwillingness to make peace by rejecting former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's peace offer at the US-brokered Camp David summit. The current Palestinian uprising began soon after, in September 2000.

"Arafat didn't accept it and he adopted a strategy of terror, and therefore I don't think that one can get into peace with Chairman Arafat," Sharon said.

- REUTERS

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