Road map to Middle East peace

11.45am

JERUSALEM - International mediators launched a US-led Middle East peace plan today, undeterred by a suicide bombing that killed three Israelis in a crowded Tel Aviv nightclub.

Two Palestinian militant groups claimed joint responsibility for the attack and Israeli police said the bomber - along with an accomplice believed to have escaped - had British passports which they apparently used to enter Israel from Gaza.

Hamas, one of the militant groups, quickly rejected the new peace "road map" aimed at ending 31 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence and vowed to keep up its campaign of bombings in defiance of a new Palestinian prime minister.

US President George W. Bush directed the release of the road map, which calls for a Palestinian state by 2005, after Palestinians swore in the cabinet led by Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, a reformist also known as Abu Mazen.

The explosion on the Tel Aviv beachfront raised questions about the revamped Palestinian government's ability to rein in militants, a demand set out in the long-delayed peace plan.

The United States, eager to defuse Arab anger over the US-led invasion of Iraq, condemned the bombing but said it would not sabotage what is expected to be the Bush administration's most intense attempt at peace-making.

Many analysts said it would be hard to overcome the sharp differences and deep distrust between the two sides.

US Ambassador Dan Kurtzer presented a copy of the plan, drawn up by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem. Other members of the international "Quartet" handed the document to Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Israel said US Secretary of State Colin Powell was expected to arrive for talks on the new Middle East peace plan on May 8, his first trip to the region in more than a year.

Palestinian officials said Powell would meet about that time with Abbas but not with President Yasser Arafat whom Washington views as an obstacle to peace. Arafat denies fomenting violence.

The road map calls for a series of confidence-building steps, including a halt to Palestinian violence, the suspension of Israeli settlement building on occupied land and the easing of Israel's restrictions on Palestinians.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on Israelis and Palestinians to embrace a new Middle East peace plan proposed by international mediators and "stay the course," a spokesman said.

Annan also congratulated the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, on his swearing in. Annan said he looked forward to working closely with him in pursuit of an end to the fighting and a Palestinian state, UN chief spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

"The secretary-general wishes to assure both Israelis and Palestinians that the United Nations will do everything it can to support them" as they follow the new "road map" to peace, Eckhard said.

Annan "believes that this performance-based and goal-driven peace plan gives the Israeli and Palestinian peoples a real chance to end their long and painful conflict," Eckhard said. "He calls on the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to embrace the road map and to co-operate with the Quartet in implementing it."

"While the path to peace may be difficult, Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the international community, must stay the course. The road map's goal of two states, a secure and prosperous Israel and an independent, viable, sovereign and democratic Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security, must be the focus of our energies and efforts," he said.

Meanwhile police said the suicide bomber killed himself and three Israelis and wounded 55 people after trying in vain to push past a security guard at "Mike's Place", a popular night spot next to the heavily guarded US embassy.

An Israeli police spokesman said the bomber and an accomplice entered Israel on British passports from Gaza.

Israel's Channel 2 television showed images of the documents which bore the names, with photographs, of Asif Hanif, 21, the alleged bomber, and Omar Sharif, 27.

A British Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are aware of the reports. We are in regular contact with Israeli security services. We have no comment...on this particular allegation."

"This murderous attack represents the most dangerous problem for the peace process and the new Palestinian prime minister.... This is going to be a very difficult and painful (process), but I think it's possible," UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen told Reuters.

He foresaw "flexibility" in implementing the road map but added: "Not one comma, not one word (of the text) will be changed. This is the basis... of what we are going to do."

In southern Gaza, Israeli troops shot dead a 60-year-old man near an Israeli army post, medics said. The army said it fired at a man in an area off-limits to Palestinians.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops also shot dead a 55-year-old woman tending to her sheep near a Jewish settlement in the central Gaza Strip. The army had no immediate comment.

At least 2018 Palestinians and 737 Israelis have been killed in two-and-a-half years of conflict.

Abbas, whom Arafat appointed under international pressure to cede some powers, took the oath of office as he stood in front of the Palestinian president at his West Bank compound.

The ceremony underscored Arafat's continuing political clout despite US and Israeli efforts to sideline him.

- REUTERS