OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A diplomatic row broke out between Israel and Britain yesterday over an Israeli decision to bar Palestinians from attending talks on Middle East peace after suicide bombers killed 22 people in Tel Aviv.

Israel’s hawkish Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw sparred in a telephone call in which Netanyahu rejected Britain’s request to reconsider the ban, a transcript provided by Israel’s Foreign Ministry showed. Both men were quoted as accusing each other’s government of creating a situation not conducive to peace.

Britain had invited top Palestinian officials to London for a Jan. 14 talks with members of the Quartet of Middle East mediators, to discuss peace and Palestinian Authority reforms demanded by Washington as a condition for statehood.

But after a double Palestinian suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Cabinet said it would bar the Palestinian delegation from attending the talks. “It must be in the interests of all sides in this conflict for Palestinians to have to address the key issues of reform to the security sector,” Straw said in London after the telephone call in which he asked Israel to reconsider.

Netanyahu, according to his office, told Straw that the attack ruled out “business as usual” and urged Britain to adopt US President Bush’s position “that leaders compromised by terror cannot be partners for peace.” “You in Britain are doing the exact opposite,” Netanyahu was quoted as telling Straw.

“No, it is Israel that is doing the opposite,” Straw said, according to the Israeli statement. “Instead of concentrating on dealing with terrorism, it is striking at (Palestinian) delegates.” Netanyahu countered by accusing the Palestinian Authority of doing nothing to prevent suicide attacks and saying President Yasser Arafat was even encouraging the bombings — allegations which Palestinian officials have always denied.

Netanyahu is the leading hawk in Sharon’s extreme right-wing Likud party and has staked out positions even tougher than his boss — including demanding Arafat’s expulsion — for combating a 27-month-old Palestinian uprising for independence. Signs of British displeasure with Israel were evident even before the phone call, when Straw voiced disappointment that Israel had not directly informed him of its decision.

“We only heard the news this morning, I regret to say, on the radio,” he said on the BBC. “It is important these people are able to travel and that we are able to engage in a process of reform.” Palestinian delegates agreed last month to take up an offer from British Prime Minister Tony Blair to meet in London in a bid to break the deadlock in Middle East peacemaking after 27 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the delegation was still preparing for the meeting. Palestinian minister Saeb Erekat said the measures “are fanning the flames and will not give Israel security and stability,” adding, “On the contrary, they mean continued chaos and violence.”

He said the ban on Palestinians going to London “amounts to forbidding talks on an eventual resumption of the peace process” and called for immediate international intervention “to stop Israel’s actions and monitor an Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories.”

Israeli helicopter gunships blasted Gaza early yesterday. The gunships fired some 10 rockets on Gaza City, causing a power cut and blasting two metal workshops, besides destroying several buildings.

Tanks also raided Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, as helicopter gunships fired overhead. Troops arrested a wanted Islamic Jihad militant and blew up his house.

The world, however, yesterday reacted with horror to the double suicide bombing with nearly all countries calling for an end to violence and appealing not to let peace efforts also fall victim to the latest outrage. World leaders accompanied strong condemnation of the action with pleas to the Israelis to show restraint.

US President George W. Bush led the outrage, describing the attack as “a despicable act of murder”. The president said the United States had conveyed the condolences of the American people to Sharon, and stressed Washington remained determined to continue the search for Middle East peace.

Across the globe, other countries also vowed extremism would not win, but urged Israel to show restraint in its response to the attack which ended a period of relative calm and appeared to have torpedoed the most recent peace initiatives. China said it rejected “answering violence with violence.”

“The Chinese side ... calls on Israel to exercise greater restraint to avoid escalating the situation,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said in Beijing.

The European Union, condemning an “appalling and wicked” act, called for peace efforts to be stepped up, not abandoned. “Palestinian terrorists set back the cause of Palestinian statehood and democracy every time they commit one of these outrages,” External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said. Japan gave strong support to Israel, demanding Arafat clamp down on extremists but also calling for the peace dialogue to continue. (Agencies)