Jerusalem ? Secretary of State Colin Powell early this morning called off his meeting today with Yasser Arafat. The decision came after a new suicide bombing spread out before Powell’s eyes the carnage he had come to Israel in hopes of ending.

The meeting might be rescheduled for Sunday, a senior U.S. official said. But Powell’s spokesman said the secretary “expects a clear denunciation of terrorism” and of the new bombing in the meantime.

Arafat has been reluctant to make such a statement, with support for suicide attacks running high among Palestinians in light of Israel’s military offensive in the West Bank.

Earlier Friday, Powell failed to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Sharon to provide a timetable for withdrawing Israeli troops from Palestinian cities and towns, although he continued to press the matter.

Soon after Powell’s effort on that side of the conflict fell short, he was confronted with the agony of the other side.

Powell got word of the bombing at a Jerusalem marketplace and hovered overhead in a helicopter as the dead and injured were taken away.

“It illustrates the exceptionally dangerous situation that exists here,” he said in a telephone call to Sharon.

The bomber killed six shoppers and injured many more by detonating explosives she was wearing.

In a statement read to reporters at Safed, in northern Israel where the secretary of state toured the tense border area near Lebanon, Powell suggested that accelerated diplomacy was the right response.

There is a need, he said, “for all of us, everyone, the international community, to exert every effort we can to find a solution.”

And yet, a few hours later, Powell directed State Department spokesman Richard Boucher to announce he was “looking at the whole situation in terms of the bombing and where we stand and where we are,” raising questions about whether Powell would press ahead.

After midnight Friday, Boucher announced that today’s meeting was off.

Powell today will meet in Jerusalem with Red Cross and U.N. officials on the deteriorating situation on the West Bank, Boucher said.

“There’s been too much suffering on both sides,” he said.

At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer said Powell had the flexibility necessary to his mission.

As for the Palestinian leader, Fleischer said, “Today would be a very good day for Yasser Arafat to publicly denounce terrorism and show some statesmanship.”

Powell was informed of the bombing as he prepared to board the helicopter to tour Israel’s fragile northern border area. Israeli Defense Minister Benyamin Ben-Eliezer provided Powell with details and the helicopter passed over the site of the attack en route to the Israel Defense Force’s northern headquarters.

Although Sharon would not give Powell a timetable for pulling back from Israeli incursions, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israel’s aims in Palestinian areas were close to being met.

“We are anxious as anybody else to complete the mission and leave,” he said. “We are not talking about years, we are talking about a week or something a little bit more than that.”

Powell had planned tentatively to see Sharon on Friday, Arafat today, Sharon again on Sunday and Arafat on Monday  and had not set a deadline for winding up.

“Israel is conducting a war against the Palestinian infrastructure of terror and hopes to end it as soon as possible,” Sharon said at a news conference with Powell.

For his part, Powell said he had explained the U.S. position to the prime minister and “I hope we can find a way to come to an agreement on this point of the duration of the operations and get back to a track that will lead to a political settlement.”

Mohammed Dahlan, head of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service for the Gaza Strip, said Israel’s military offensive was to blame for creating suicide bombers. “This is coming from the anger and suffering of the Palestinian people due to these attacks and sieges,” he said in an interview.

Earlier, Powell took a tough stand on what he wanted from Arafat, who is cooped up in Ramallah under Israeli-imposed isolation.

“What is important now is not just rhetoric going on into the air with no effect but action  action that will bring this violence under control, action that will give a feeling of hope to the people in the region,” he said.