US efforts to build a broad international coalition against terrorism have encountered a setback with a sharp warning from the Israeli Prime Minister against making concessions to Arab states for military and diplomatic support.
"Don't try to conciliate the Arabs at our expense. We won't accept it," Mr Sharon said in Tel Aviv. The warning came as the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, continued his tour of Arab states to bolster support for the military and political alliance.
Mr Sharon made his remarkable comments a few hours after a plane exploded on its way from Tel Aviv to Siberia with at least 76 people on board, most of them Israeli citizens.
Meanwhile, Pakistan conceded that a 20-page US intelligence report contained grounds for legal action against the suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden. "This material certainly provides sufficient basis for [bin Laden's] indictment in a court of law," a foreign ministry spokesman said.
Earlier, at a brief news conference in Tel Aviv, Mr Sharon said: "I call upon the western democracies, and first of all the United States as the head of the free world, not to commit again the terrible mistake made in 1938 when European democracies sacrificed Czechoslovakia for a temporary solution." He added: "Israel will not be Czechoslovakia."
Commenting on the plane disaster, he said: "I spoke today with President Vladimir Putin and we agreed to a total co-operation between our two countries to investigate the circumstances of this catastrophe."
Earlier in the day a Palestinian gunman opened fire in an Israeli bus station, killing three civilians.
The air disaster aroused fears that extremist Islamic terrorists might have struck again. US and Russian officials at first said the jet could have been downed in error during a joint Russian-Ukrainian exercise, but the defence ministry in Kiev later formally denied this.
The British Prime Minister told the House of Commons there was now conclusive proof of bin Laden's guilt. Mr Blair then flew to Moscow for talks with President Putin. Before their talks began, Mr Blair praised the Russian leader for the "immense importance" of his support for the coalition. He later told reporters Russia's role represented a turning point in post-Cold War history.
Mr Putin said it was unlikely the air disaster had been caused accidentally by a missile fired during joint Russian-Ukranian exercises, as reported by a Russian navy official. The Russian president said he did not rule out terrorism.
In New York, the Irish Ambassador to the UN, Mr Richard Ryan, announced in his capacity as president of the Security Council that his British counterpart, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, would chair a special committee to oversee implementation of anti-terrorist measures by the member-states.
Mr Ryan said council members had elected Russia, Colombia and Mauritius as deputy chairs. "The committee will submit a work programme by October 28th and consider the support it requires, in consultation with the secretary general," he said.
Meanwhile, Pakistani health authorities said at least one Afghan refugee had died of Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) and warned that thousands more could fall victim to the tic-borne, highly virulent disease.
David Horovitz reports from Jerusalem: In an extraordinary speech yesterday the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, appeared to end any notion of a peace partnership with Mr Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, declaring that "from today onwards, we will rely only on ourselves". American officials later described the speech as "intemperate".