Blast Rocks Tel Aviv

An explosion on a bus on a main street in Tel Aviv injured at least five people, Israel radio said.

The manager of a wedding hall next door told Israel radio black smoke billowed into the air after the blast.

"I saw three or four people who were injured," he said. "Of course, people were hysterical. There was a smell of fire in the air. There was fear that there might be a bigger bomb that had not yet gone off."

Sirens wailed, and authorities yelled to people to clear the area. Hundreds of police converged on the scene.

The cause of the explosion was not yet known, although it immediately raised suspicions of a terrorist attack. In the past, bus bombings have often been staged inside Israel by Islamic militants opposed to the peace process.

The explosion came only hours after the cancellation of a planned summit by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and came after both Israel and the Palestinianse expressed reservations about U.S.

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