A statement by the Middle East quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- urged yesterday "further and sustained" Palestinian moves against terrorism.

The quartet met on the sidelines of a London meeting on Palestinian reform clouded by Friday's suicide bombing of a Tel Aviv night club, in which five people were killed.

"We are very upset at the quartet statement," said a Palestinian official who asked not to be identified.

He said the Palestinians had condemned the bombing, but Israeli travel restrictions were hampering efforts by Palestinian security services to find the perpetrators.

"They (quartet members) are putting security as the first approach as if they want the occupied Palestinians to give security to their Israeli occupiers," the official said.

The bombing had undermined the truce declared by new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at a summit three weeks ago.

The London meeting, attended by Arab and European foreign ministers as well as quartet members, told Israelis and Palestinians to meet their obligations under a peace "road map" to ensure creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

A final draft statement, obtained by Reuters, offered Palestinians support for security forces trying to stop attacks on Israelis, for parliamentary polls and for efforts to ensure order when Israel pulls settlers from the occupied Gaza Strip.

In return the Palestinians vowed to pursue security reforms, hold elections on schedule in July and fight corruption.

The aim of the meeting, hosted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was to back efforts by Abbas to implement reforms, halt violence and resume peacemaking with Israel after the death last year of veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Israel, which had shunned Arafat, is willing to deal with his successor, but stayed away from the London meeting, anxious to avoid international pressure to resume early peace talks.

The London statement said the path to peace required direct talks leading to "a safe and secure Israel and a sovereign, independent, viable, democratic and territorially contiguous Palestine, living side by side in peace and security".

Rice said her pointman on Palestinian security reform, Lieutenant-General William Ward, would move to the region, where he will coordinate security contacts between the two sides.

A Palestinian official said Ward was welcome. "We need him to be a witness to the actions of both sides," Mejdi al-Khaldi, an aide to Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa, told the news agency.

Abbas told the meeting that reforms must be backed by peace negotiations with Israel, saying security efforts could collapse unless supported by a "serious political track".

He urged new efforts to implement the nearly two-year-old road map, stalled by violence and upstaged by Sharon's unilateral Gaza withdrawal plan.

Palestinians want governments to press Israel to ensure that any Gaza pullout is part of the road map, not a one-off move to perpetuate Israeli control of West Bank settlements.

Gaza is home to 1.3 million Palestinians and the West Bank to 2.3 million. Nearly 240,000 Jews live in settlements in the territories, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said it was vital to stop violence by militants, but Israel must also do its part.

"Israel must take no actions that prejudice a final settlement, and must help ensure that a new Palestinian state is truly viable. A state of scattered territories will not work," she said in remarks that echoed the quartet statement.

Representatives of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were also attending.

British officials expect some countries to pledge cash to plug short-term gaps, setting the stage for a donor conference by the end of June.