Road map to peace in crisis after tit-for-tat killings

THE US-backed road map to peace in the Middle East was in crisis last night after a suicide bomber killed at least 16 on a Jerusalem bus and seven Palestinians were killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza City.

Seventy people were wounded in the Jerusalem bombing, the deadliest in three months, and 30 were hurt in the Gaza missile attack.

The violence was a setback for US president George Bush, who only last Wednesday launched his peace plan to end the violence and create a Palestinian state by 2005.