Washington ? President Bush mourned the deaths of five Americans in a Jerusalem bombing as he met Thursday with King Abdullah of Jordan on how to move the Mideast peace process forward. “I am just as angry as Israel is. I am furious,” he said.

“But even though I am mad, I still think peace is possible,” the president said at a picture-taking session with the king at the start of a meeting in the Oval Office.

Bush said he was seeking the cooperation of Arab governments in tracking down the perpetrators of the bombing at Hebrew University in which five Americans were killed.

At the same time, the president reaffirmed that bolstering security is his highest priority.

Abdullah, for his part, stressed a need to move ahead in peacemaking. “You have really given us hope that once and for all we will be able to move forward as Arabs and Israelis to be able to live in peace and harmony and have a tremendous future.”

In an obvious thrust at Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader whose ouster he already has demanded, Bush said security arrangements must serve to protect people and not the “whims” of one man.

Later, Bush met for a half-hour with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, joining a meeting Peres held with Condoleezza Rice, the president’s national security assistant.

“Basically, we see eye-to-eye,” Peres said afterward. “To get rid of terror at large and suicide bombers particularly.”

Despite a spate of terror bombings, Israel will proceed to help the Palestinians, moving forces out of areas where the Palestinians impose security measures and giving the Palestinians access to jobs in Israel, Peres said.

He said Israel did not intend to retaliate for the bombing, but to keep trying to prevent such attacks by focusing on “the birthplace” of suicide bombers their launching place.

Praising Bush for his war on terror, the Israeli minister said “the United States is conducting today a war of life and death for humanity. We feel ourselves as soldiers in that war.”

Bush, in his exchange with reporters, affirmed his support for Israel’s self-defense. He also asked Israel’s leaders to make decisions that “make the area more secure” and enhance peace prospects.

“Today we mourn the loss of American lives,” Bush said at the outset of his meeting with the king. He said the terrorists were guided by “some kind of false religion” and were trying to kill off peace hopes.

“We are committed to the war on terror, to fighting the war on terror, to winning the war on terror,” he said.

And yet, Bush said the foes of peace should not be permitted to stop the peace process.

Abdullah, in response, praised Bush’s “very strong commitment” to aid the Palestinian people. And the king, whose country is at peace with Israel, said Arabs and Israelis must move together to broaden that peace throughout the region.

On another front, Iraq, their disagreement was apparent.

The king this month called any idea of attacking Baghdad to topple President Saddam Hussein “somewhat ludicrous” and he was expected to push that view with the president.

But Bush said they had discussed the issue before and “I haven’t changed my mind.”

Lashing out at Saddam as a poisoner of his own people, bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction, Bush said “the policy of our government, this administration, is regime change.”

He said he would “assure his majesty that we are looking at all options.”

Bush has warned that America will strike against terrorists who attack Americans. Asked whether the United States planned retaliation, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said: “The United States is already engaged in a war against terror, and the war will continue.”

Abdullah is the latest Arab leader to call on Bush to get Israel out of the West Bank and Gaza so the land may be used for a Palestinian state.

Bush is committed to Palestinian statehood in three years, and he supports U.N. resolutions that would have Israel give up territory the Arabs lost in the 1967 Mideast war in exchange for peace within secure borders.

Israel’s battle with terror was likely the subject of a fast-paced series of meetings that Peres had scheduled Thursday with officials at the Pentagon as well as with Rice, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.

In Gaza, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, linked the bombing at Hebrew University to Israel’s air strike in Gaza City last week that killed Hamas military commander Salah Shehadeh and 14 civilians, including nine children.