MILLDE EAST: Europe and the United States have urged the Israelis and Palestinians to abandon violent tactics in favour of peace while condemning the latest bombing attack on an Israeli bus which left nine people dead and 50 wounded.
"I'm distressed to hear about the latest suicide bombers in Israel," President Bush said after a member of the militant Palestinian group Hamas yesterday blew himself up on an Israeli bus near the northern Israeli town of Safad.
"There are a few killers who want to stop the peace process that we have started, and we must not let them," he said from his family's holiday home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
The German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, who made his third official visit to the region in May, also condemned the attack.
"The government forcefully condemns the attacks today in Jerusalem and northern Israel in which once again numerous innocent people were killed and injured," he said in a statement.
The attacks were an attempt to "torpedo" the introduction of a political solution and could not be allowed to succeed. Mr Fischer urged Israel and Palestine to continue their discussions.
The US, the EU, the UN and Russia comprise the diplomatic Middle East "quartet" which began its efforts to pave the way to peace in the Middle East during a meeting in New York last month.
France also condemned yesterday's attack and urged both sides to come to the negotiating table.
A foreign ministry spokesman warned: "The cycle of violence continues; it will lead to nothing but more suffering and victims. To stop this murderous cycle, the parties have no other solution but to resume the path of dialogue. The international community must urgently contribute to this."
"I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers," Mr Bush said. "For the sake of humanity, for the sake of the Palestinians who suffer, for the sake of the Israelis who are under attack, we must stop the terror."
The president called on the world community to help to put a stop to the attacks "for those who yearn for peace in the Middle East, for those in the Arab lands, for those in Europe, for those all around the world who yearn for peace".
More than 2,400 people, nearly 1,800 of them Palestinian, have been killed since the intifada began 22 months ago.
The reactions from the US, Franc and Germany came as a Palestinian militant went on a shooting spree in east Jerusalem, killing an Israeli and a Palestinian bystander before being gunned down in a shoot-out with police just three hours after the bus bomb.
Israel has vowed strong retaliation for the spate of attacks, saying it would fight Palestinian militants "without mercy" in a "long-term fight". - (AFP)