OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 21 March — A Palestinian man killed seven passengers, including four Israeli soldiers, when he blew himself up on a bus in northern Israel yesterday. The attack, on the bus from Tel Aviv to Nazareth, was claimed by Islamic Jihad and condemned by the Palestinian Authority.
US President George W. Bush said he was "frustrated" with the violence and called on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat "to be diligent and firm and consistent in his efforts to rein in those who would like to disrupt any progress toward peace".
American Mideast envoy Gen. Anthony Zinni held talks with Arafat shortly after the attack. He later chaired talks between Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs in Tel Aviv that officials on both sides said they hoped would produce an agreement for a cease-fire.
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said that Zinni had proposed that the security session should go on until a deal was sealed. He expressed confidence that a truce would be clinched by the weekend.
On the table is a cease-fire plan charted in June by US CIA Director George Tenet and a Palestinian demand to link its implementation to the start of wider political moves leading to the resumption of talks on a permanent peace.
Separately, a senior Palestinian official said Arafat would meet US Vice President Dick Cheney "at the start of next week." The official, who asked not be named, said that "at the start of next week, Arafat will meet Cheney," but gave no exact time or venue.
US officials in Washington said earlier that the two men could meet in Egypt if Arafat implemented a truce agreement with Israel, while officials in Cairo said preparations for a first possible encounter between the two were already under way.
