THE Italian Foreign Minister Ms Susanna Agnelli, flew to Israel and Gaza yesterday to show the European Union's support for Middle East peace talks following Monday's suicide bomb attack in Tel Aviv.
Ms Agnelli, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, was scheduled to meet the Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, in Tel Aviv and the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, in Gaza.
The Italian Foreign Ministry said Ms Agnelli wanted to express support for the peace process and Europe's conviction "that the forces of terror must not prevail".
Yesterday President Clinton told the people of Israel that the American people "stand with you" in the fight to end a wave of suicide bombings and save the Middle East peace process.
In a video taped statement shown on Israeli television, he also called the bombings a "direct challenge" to Mr Arafat and said the Palestinian leader "must do everything possible to end this campaign of terror".
Mr Clinton's message followed his dispatch of sophisticated bomb detection equipment to Israel and his order that US counter terrorism experts help strengthen security in the Jewish state.
President Clinton said the attacks "are aimed not just at killing innocent people, but at killing the growing hope for peace in the Middle East".
He added "Chairman Arafat knows that his leadership and the hopes of the Palestinian people are under direct challenge. He must do everything possible to end this campaign of terror."
The US Republican leader, Mr Bob Dole, said bombing attacks on Israel might provoke efforts in Congress to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority ruling parts of the West Bank.
Mr Dole, the front runner for the Republican presidential nomination, also chided the White House spokesman, Mr Mike McCurry, for talking publicly about dispatching bomb detection equipment to Israel.
I am not certain it helps the cause of counter terrorism to talk publicly about the type of equipment we are sending to help our allies," he said.
In Johannesburg, President Nelson Mandela condemned the wave of suicide bombings in Isarel but said he would be willing to meet representatives from the group claiming responsibility if they came to South Africa.
Asked about reports that representatives of Hamas, the radical Muslim group behind the bombings, planned to visit South Africa, Mr Mandela said "My attitude is to see everybody who wants to see me, whether I agree with his policy or not. It sometimes helps because I'm able to state my policy to them and to let them defend their own policy if they can."
Speaking at the clinic in Johannesburg where he is having medical tests, Mr Mandela firmly condemned the suicide bombers.
"We have shown in a country whose past was dominated by divisions, tensions and conflicts' that we can move away from that and talk as human beings and solve problems," he said.
France's political leaders pledged to turn out today at a silent rally in Paris to condemn terrorism and support the Middle East peace process.
Meanwhile in Tel Aviv, supporters and opponents of the Arab Israeli peace process held rival demonstrations. Supporters of the peace policy gathered near. Mr Peres's home chanting "No to" violence". "Terrorism will not win" and "Shimon, we are with you
In central Tel Aviv near the Dizengoff shopping centre where a suicide bomber killed 13 people, extreme right wingers held a torchlight demonstration chanting "Death to Arabs". They also shouted "By blood and, by fire we will get rid of Peres