Israeli city hit by blast

There are signs of a hardening of attitudes

An explosion has rocked the Israeli coastal city of Netanya, wounding at least six people.

Israel radio said the blast, which occurred near the entrance to a school, was probably a car bomb.

Earlier this month, Netanya was the scene of a suicide bomb attack in which five Israelis were killed and about 100 injured.

The explosion came as the Israeli and Palestinian leaders renewed their calls for an end to violence and officials from both sides prepared to hold a second round of security talks in Gaza.

Violence rages despite talks between security officials

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appealed for restraint amid mounting pressure from Jewish settlers to end the limited unilateral ceasefire he announced last week.

Speaking after a meeting of his security cabinet, Mr Sharon said he would maintain the ceasefire, and he called for patience.

The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, echoed Mr Sharon's call for an end to violence, saying all parties must stop their attacks.

In another diplomatic move, Pope John Paul II has sent a senior envoy to Jerusalem to meet Mr Sharon and Mr Arafat to try to help broker a peace deal.

Americans cancel

The violence flared after Israel announced further settlement plans

In the meantime, a scheduled meeting between senior US diplomats and Palestinian negotiators has been cancelled.

US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk and US Consul General Ron Schlicher called off the meeting after Jibril Rajoub, the West Bank preventive security chief, refused to attend Israeli-Palestinian security talks Tuesday night, a Palestinian official said.

Mr Rajoub refused to attend the talks in protest against the shelling of his house by Israeli troops two weeks ago, according to the official.

US officials declined to comment.

UN observers demanded

The Israeli army said two mortar bombs hit a Jewish settlement overnight in the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday three Israelis and three Palestinians were killed in violence and two international journalists were briefly kidnapped by a Palestinian group.

Talks were overshadowed by further violence

Mr Arafat on Wednesday appealed for the "urgent" dispatch of international observers to Israel and the Palestinian territories to help end the violence.

"We are in need quickly of observers from the European Union, from the United Nations, from the co-sponsors and from everywhere to stop the violence and to protect the peace process," he said after a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson.

The United States in March vetoed a United Nations resolution on sending UN observers to the region after Israel said it regarded the move as unfair and an infringement on its sovereignty.

No commitment

At talks in Ramallah on Tuesday - the first between the two sides for several weeks - little progress was reported, as security officials made no headway towards ending eight months of bloodshed.

Three days of diplomatic efforts by new US envoy William Burns were unable to coax either side into implementing an international report for ending the violence, raising questions about the Bush administration's first attempt at Middle East shuttle diplomacy.

The violence flared after Israel announced further settlement plans

"The continuation of violence threatens to overtake these efforts," a statement by the US embassy in Tel Aviv said.

Israel wants the Palestinians to follow their ceasefire, while warning that the policy of military restraint will not last forever.

"The Palestinians at the meeting gave no commitment to stopping the violence," an Israeli Defence Ministry spokesman said.

The Palestinians said the Israelis were violating their own truce and insisted Israel had to stop firing first.

The latest violence flared after Israel announced plans to build homes for another 710 Jewish settler families in the West Bank.