Israel has rejected a rare US rebuke for its attempted assassination of a Palestinian militant leader that has further undermined the latest Middle East peace plan.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered aides to turn over intelligence to US officials to back accusations that Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, the public face of the radical Islamic group Hamas, had been coordinating attacks on Israelis.
The helicopter missile strike that wounded Rantissi in Gaza yesterday drew vows of revenge from Hamas, raising the spectre of a new cycle of bloodshed that could bury a US-backed "road map" aimed at ending 32 months of conflict.
Some Israeli political commentators joined in the criticism of Sharon, including suggestions the right-wing leader had used the assassination attempt to try to mollify hardliners fiercely opposed to his acceptance of the road map.
Hours before the strike, the army began dismantling some Jewish settler outposts in the West Bank, a road map obligation that has drawn protest within Sharon's own rightist Likud party.
"Targeted screw-up" was what Maariv newspaper commentator Chemi Shalev dubbed the assassination attempt.
"It was a matter of miserable timing," columnist Zvi Barel wrote in the daily Haaretz, saying the missiles unleashed against Rantissi had effectively hit Bush and Abbas.
Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, told al-Arabiya television he had appealed to Washington to "save the road map".
Sharon said he was committed to the plan but "we will continue to fight the heads of extremist terror organisations that murder Jews and are enemies of peace, as long as there is no one on the other side who does it".
The White House was caught off guard by Israel's attempted assassination of Abdelaziz Rantisi, a senior leader of Hamas, and was then further unsettled by a second Israeli strike launched in retaliation for a Palestinian attack.
"I'm concerned that the attacks make it more difficult for the Palestinian leadership to fight off terrorist attacks. I also don't believe the attacks helped Israeli security," Bush told reporters.
Bush vowed to persevere with the road map but said the assault on Rantissi could weaken Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.
Washington interpreted yesterday's violence - which followed a weekend assault on Israelis - as open defiance of an agreement by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to give Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas time build a new security force so that he could contain Islamic extremists, US sources said.
Israel has carried out dozens of so-called "targeted assassinations." In the past, Hamas has insisted on an end to such killings before it would consider a ceasefire.
Bush ordered top aides to urgently convey those points to Israeli and Palestinian officials and lean on them to stick to the letter and spirit of the road map, which stipulates reciprocal concessions leading to a Palestinian state by 2005. AP,