Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, traveling to an international conference on aiding the Palestinian authority, warned Palestinian leaders on Monday that they had better come prepared to show a clear resolve to break up terrorist groups.

Speaking to reporters aboard her plane on the way here, Ms. Rice lamented the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Friday that killed five Israelis, and then said it was time for the Palestinians "to begin dismantling the terrorist infrastructure; that is what I will be looking for."

She also said the event was "an important opportunity for the Palestinians to demonstrate how they plan to carry out economic reforms."...

...Ms. Rice's remarks suggested that, after the bombing last week, the tenor of the meeting had changed. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, has tried to curb attacks on Israelis by persuading the various Palestinian groups to observe a cease-fire - rather than trying to dismantle them, as Israel has urged. Until Friday, that strategy had been largely successful; there had been no major attacks inside Israel since November. [Nonsense - Israel's security fence and tough security measures are far more responsible than anything the PA has done. -Sol]

Until now, the United States had offered cautious praise for Mr. Abbas's success in reducing the violence and suggested that a cease-fire might be workable as a temporary, opening tactic. But Ms. Rice's remarks on Monday urging him to dismantle the terrorist groups immediately indicated that the American attitude toward Mr. Abbas's efforts had hardened. Islamic Jihad, which took responsibility for the attack, had been among the groups that had agreed to the cease-fire, although over the weekend an official said on the group's Web site that a one-month pause in attacks was over.

Ms. Rice did say she had been pleased by the behavior of both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders after the attack. "The statements" from the Palestinian leaders condemning the attack "were clearer than anything we saw in the old days," she said.

But she also called on the Palestinians to deal quickly with Islamic Jihad.

Ms. Rice also criticized Syria. She declined to confirm or comment on the arrest in Syria of Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, Saddam Hussein's half brother, who is accused of playing a leading role in the Iraqi insurgency. Syria has been under pressure from the United States, which has repeatedly accused it of aiding the insurgency...

The Palestinian Authority must take immediate action to apprehend the perpetrators of last week's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, the Quartet of countries sponsoring the road map peace plan said Tuesday.

In a statement released at a global conference on Palestinian reform, the group condemned the bombing and said it undermined "recent positive steps taken by Israel and the Palestinians" to secure peace.

The group, which consists of the United Nations, Russia, the European Union and the United States, called for "immediate action by the Palestinian Authority to apprehend and bring to justice the perpetrators."

It commended Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, but insisted again that it must happen "in a manner consistent with the road map."...