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JERUSALEM, Sunday (Reuters)

A bomb exploded on a bus in northern Israel on Sunday, killing several people and wounding at least 15 in what police called a Palestinian attack.

"Fifteen people were evacuated to hospital. There are also several dead," Avi Zohar, a spokesman for the Magen David Adom ambulance service, told Channel Two television. Channel Two said at least five people were killed. It was not immediately known if a suicide bomber carried out the attack or if the blast was caused by explosives planted on the vehicle.

The blast, at the start of the Israeli work week, ripped through a bus travelling from the northern port of Haifa to the city of Safed.

Witnesses described an explosion that engulfed the vehicle in a fireball and blew off its roof.

"It is a very distressing scene," northern region police chief Yehuda Solomon told Israel Radio. Israeli buses on Sunday morning are usually packed with soldiers returning to base after weekend leave.

The explosion occurred four days after a bomb at an international students' centre in Jerusalem's Hebrew University killed seven people, including five Americans.

Meanwhile The militant Islamic group Hamas has claimed responsibility for an explosion on an Israeli bus near the northern city of Safed on Sunday, Hizbollah's al-Manar television reported.

The station said the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam military wing of Hamas claimed responsibility in a telephone call for the "martyrdom operation" on the bus near a Jewish holy site outside Safed.

Meanwhile Israeli forces pushed ahead with a sweep for Palestinian militants in the West Bank city of Nablus as the United States and Middle East leaders planned new talks aimed at ending 22 months of bloodshed.

Soldiers went from house to house in the Nablus Casbah, or Old City, smashing holes in connecting walls to avoid exposure to gunmen outside, as they searched for suspected suicide bombers and their handlers. Military sources said up to ten suspected militants had been winnowed out from a group of 50 detainees for more thorough interrogation.

In the divided city of Hebron, a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli fire as troops reimposed a curfew, Palestinian witnesses and medics said.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he still hoped to meet Palestinian leaders next week despite a deadly bomb attack on an Israeli university earlier in the week that drew swift military retaliation from Israel.

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