HIGHLIGHTS: Sharon Cuts Short US Visit||Sharon's 6th Attempt to Persuade Bush to ostracize Arafat fails||Bush To Send Tenet to the Region||Implementation of Bethlehem Church Deal Delayed||STORY: A Palestinian Resistance bomber killed at least 15 people and wounded 55 others in an Israeli billiards club in Rishon Letzion, just south of Tel Aviv, in central Israel on Tuesday, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to cut short a US Visit. The blast took attack during a meeting in the White House between Sharon and the US President, George W. Bush at the White House in Washington. (Read photo caption below)

It was the first major Resistance attack since Israel launched a military offensive in the West Bank aimed at uprooting bombers. The blast ripped off the building's roof and a collapsing ceiling trapped people under rubble.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing. A statement said the Palestinian leadership would take "deterrent measures against those involved in the grave attack.

CIA'S TENET TO THE MIDDLE EAST

Sharon, whom Bush has called a "man of peace" despite his leadership of this spring's crushing offensive in Palestinian areas of the West Bank, has failed in five previous White House visits to persuade the president to ostracize Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Bush said after meeting Sharon he was sending CIA Director George Tenet to the Middle East to work on building a new Palestinian security force.

Bush and Sharon both urged reforms within the Palestinian Authority, with the U.S. president urging the authority to adopt a constitution and Sharon saying reforms must precede any discussion of a Palestinian state.

The Israeli leader brought fresh demands for a major restructuring of the Palestinian Authority that would limit Arafat's influence, as well as documents purporting to outline the Palestinian leader's connections to financing terror.

Although Bush views Arafat with open mistrust, he remains committed to dealing with him as the recognized leader of the Palestinian people.

Bush sidestepped differences with Sharon over Arafat by saying that dealing with the Palestinian leader was Sharon's decision to make

IMPLEMENTATION OF BETHLEHEM DEAL DELAYED

In the Middle East, efforts to end a 36-day-old armed standoff at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity stalled when Italy refused to accept 13 Palestinian militants holed up inside the Church.

Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to a U.S. and European Union brokered deal in which 13 Palestinian Resistance men on Israel's so-called wanted list would go to Egypt and then into exile in Italy.

But Italy said it had been kept in the dark and could not consider accepting the men for now.

In a bid to end the last-minute snag in the church siege deal, Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to urge cooperation to bring the standoff to an end and pave the way for an Israeli withdrawal from Bethlehem.

Under the agreement, a further 26 alleged militants sheltering inside the church were to be transferred to the Gaza Strip. Both groups would be under U.S. escort, diplomats said.

But as night fell, hopes of a quick resolution faded.

However, Palestinian officials held out hope that a solution could be found to end the standoff.

The bid to end the siege at the Church of the Nativity hit another stumbling block over weapons belonging to Palestinian security men who sought refuge in the church along with more than 100 clerics and other civilians to escape invading Israeli forces.

The security men wanted written assurances, before handing their weapons in to the Israelis that they would be returned.
Militant groups behind attacks that have killed scores of Israelis have made clear their opposition to the expulsion of their members in the church.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli rescue personnel remove the body of a victim of a blast in Rishon Letzion near Tel Aviv on May 7, 2002 after a Resistance bomber killed at least 15 people in a club. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cut short his visit to the United States to return home after the bombing, an Israeli spokesman said. (Gil Cohen Magen/Reuters)