Friday May 18 8:17 PM ET

U.S. Calls for Unconditional Mideast Cease-Fire

By Jonathan Wright

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States called on Friday for an unconditional cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians and urged all Middle East leaders to do everything they can to bring an end to the violence.

``Today the violence in the Middle East took on a new level of intensity,'' said President Bush. ``It is essential that the leaders in the Middle East speak out clearly.''

Secretary of State Colin Powell added later, ``I stand here today and call on behalf of the United States for all leaders in the region to speak out and call immediately and ... do everything in their power immediately to bring into being an unconditional cessation of violence.''

Earlier on Friday a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and six other people in Israel. Israeli planes attacked Palestinian security headquarters in the West Bank and Gaza, killing at least nine people. About 200 people were injured.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called Powell after the attacks and they discussed the violence, a U.S. official said.

Bush, reacting to the initial suicide bombing, told reporters at the White House: ``Violence will not lead to peace. Violence will make it so difficult for there to be any political settlement.''

Powell, at a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, said repeatedly that a ``cessation of violence'' was the key to restarting talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which broke down in January.

``The very first step that has to be taken, the only way to start to move toward confidence-building measures and ... negotiations on a final status, is for there to be unconditional cessation of
violence by all,'' he said.

This is what the United States will say when former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell on Monday releases the report of his commission's inquiry into the violence, Powell said.

MEETING WITH ARAFAT IN DOUBT

In previous statements, Powell has said that a substantial reduction in violence would be enough to restart talks, while the Israeli government said violence must stop completely.

A senior State Department official said Powell was reacting to Friday's unusually bloody carnage and was not adding a new condition for supporting a resumption of negotiations.

Powell conceded that it might prove difficult to stop all violent acts. ``It's not clear that we can get it down to zero but I think we have to start with that proposition,'' he said.

The suicide bombing on Friday was claimed by the Islamist militant groups Hamas, which is outside the control of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. The Israeli warplanes hit back at security forces controlled by Arafat.

On Wednesday, Powell and Arafat were trying to arrange a meeting during Powell's trip to Europe and Africa next week but Powell said on Friday that nothing was fixed.

``I am always reviewing my plans but I have no plans at the moment,'' he told the news conference.

He added: ``If there was any solution that I could come up with, any conference or meeting that could be held right away that might move us in such a direction (away from violence), I would
leap at it.

``We continue to look to see if a new kind of presence or another kind of activity on our part would be helpful. But so far I find that we are still stuck at point number one.''

The next stage in U.S. diplomacy comes with the release on Monday of the Mitchell report, which includes a call on Israel to freeze all work on Jewish settlements.

The Israelis and Palestinians are waiting to see if the United States endorses the report unconditionally or tries to dilute the part on settlements, which Israel rejects.

The International Red Cross (ICRC) weighed into the settlements arguments on Thursday, saying they amounted to a war crime under international humanitarian law.

The United States, which says only that the settlements are provocative, responded by criticizing the ICRC.

``We don't think this comment is helpful at this particularly volatile time,'' said State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker.

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