The US President, Mr George W. Bush, has denounced the latest anti-Israeli suicide bombing and urged "all of the free world" to use "every ounce of their power" to prevent such attacks in the future.
Hamas took credit on its webite for the attack, which tore through a bus in downtown Jerusalem, killing 16 people plus the bomber and wounded dozens.
"I strongly condemn the killings, and I urge and call upon all of the free world, nations which love peace, to not only condemn the killings but to use every ounce of their power to prevent them from happening in the future," Mr Bush said in a brief statement in Chicago.
A day after offering a rare rebuke to Israel for helicopter attacks aimed at slaying Hamas leaders, Mr Bush specifically denounced the militant organization for the "terrible bombing", but did not mention a later Israeli airstrike that killed seven Palestinians.
"It is clear there are people in the Middle East who hate peace; people who want to kill in order to make sure that the desires of Israel to live in (security) and peace don't happen; who kill to make sure the desires of the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority and others of a peaceful state, living side by side with Israel, do not happen," he said.
A week ago, Mr Bush invested considerable personal capital in the peace process by vowing after a joint summit in Aqaba, Jordan, to hold Israelis and Palestinians to the so-called "roadmap" he hopes will break a deadly cycle of violence that erupted in September 2000.
The internationally drawn blueprint calls for the Palestinians to dismantle terrorist groups and for Israel to withdraw from settlements, with a central goal of creating a Palestinian state at peace with Israel as early as 2005.
Prime ministers Mr Ariel Sharon of Israel and Mr Mahmud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority embraced the blueprint at last week's summit, but radical militant groups, including Hamas, have rebuffed.
Mr Bush offered a fresh appeal "to the people in the world who want to see peace in the Middle East".
"I strongly urge all of you to fight off terror, to cut off money to organizations such as Hamas, to isolate those who hate so much that they're willing to kill to stop peace from going forward," he said.
AFP