Abbas convenes emergency session after suicide bomb

PALESTINIAN Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas convened an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday to respond to a Hamas suicide bombing that killed 20 people.

Tuesday night's Jerusalem bus blast also wounded more than 100, including about 40 children, returning from the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest shrine. It was the deadliest Palestinian terror attack since the road map peace plan was unveiled three months ago by US President George W Bush.

The Palestinian Authority's next move could well determine the fate of the US-backed peace plan. Cabinet ministers arrived in Gaza City last night for a meeting called by Abbas.