An explosion ripped through a commuter bus in Jerusalem on Sunday killing at least five people. A second blast within minutes caused no casualties. Israel Army Radio and police said both attacks were apparently made by Palestinian bombers. Israeli media said at least 18 people had been wounded. A police spokesman said the bomber was killed but no one else was hurt in the second blast in the open near a road junction. The blasts came just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas met to discuss ways to restart police talks, and just before Sharon was due to leave for Washington. Jerusalem police chief Mickey Levy told Israel radio: "A powerful explosion ripped through the bus. The driver lost control and the bus rolled backwards. The bus was completely broken up. To our regret there are dead and wounded at the scene." The bus explosion took place at French Hill, land Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. Eyewitnesses said police draped blankets over two bodies that had been partly blown out of the shattered windows of the bus. whose font section was buckled and blackened by the blast. A police spokesman said that in the second explosion, the dead bomber could have acted when he saw emergency vehicles rushing to French Hill, or the bomb could have gone off prematurely. ** Sharon Cancels U.S. Trip*** Ariel Sharon postponed a scheduled U.S. trip following two blasts in Jerusalem on Sunday, his office said. Sharon was to meet with President Bush in Washington to discuss a U.S.-backed peace plan intended to put an end to 31 months of violence and restart peace talks with the Palestinians. Sharon's office did not say when the prime minister would reschedule his trip. Israeli police blamed the Jerusalem bus bombing on Palestinian Islamic groups who have been waging an uprising for independence since peace negotiations failed in September 2000. **PHOTO CAPTION*** An Israeli policeman searches the remains of a commuter bus after an explosion killed at least four people in Jerusalem May 18, 2003. REUTERS/Reinhard Krause