CRAWFORD, Aug 20: US President George Bush on Wednesday led an all-out campaign seeking a swift, decisive Palestinian crackdown on militants after what aides called a “vicious” bus bombing against Israelis.

“There is more to do: The Palestinian Authority must act to dismantle terrorist organizations,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. “You can’t just continue to let them exist, you have to dismantle them.”

From his Texas ranch, Mr Bush called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to express his sorrow over Tuesday’s suicide attack, which killed at least 20 and wounded 100, dealing a potentially fatal blow to the US-backed peace plan.

In frenzied diplomacy, US officials strove to rescue the so-called roadmap, while warning the Palestinians that ending violence against Israel was crucial to achieving the blueprint’s goal of creating a Palestinian state by 2005.

Bush told Sharon he “strongly condemned the vicious attack on innocent civilians and the two leaders said that this latest attack in Jerusalem only reinforced the need to crack down on terrorists,” said McClellan.—AFP