Associated Press Palestinian men carry bodies of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army, moved from Ramallah's hospital morgue yesterday, into a freshly excavated mass grave. Palestinian hospital officials buried some 15 dead in a mass grave in the parking lot of Ramallah's hospital, as Israeli forces lifted the curfew for four hours to allow Palestinians out of their homes.

WASHINGTON - The State Department, citing a "deteriorating security situation," warned Americans yesterday to defer travel to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and said dependents of American diplomats in Jerusalem were being encouraged to go home.

"The potential for further terrorist acts remains high," the travel warning said. "The situation in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza remains extremely volatile with continuing terrorist attacks, confrontations and clashes."

Similar warnings to Americans to stay away from Israel were issued in December and January. The statement yesterday was coupled with an announcement that dependents of U.S. diplomats and other American workers at the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem were authorized to go home at government expense.

Also, Americans living in Jerusalem, the West Bank and in Gaza were advised to consider relocating.

The departure of dependents, which is not mandatory, was based on the general situation and not on any specific threats against Americans, said a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Israel's economy already is reeling under the damage caused by Palestinian attacks, the expense of a military buildup and a sharp decline in tourists. Yesterday's statement is bound to add to Americans' anxieties about visiting Israel.

The United States, declining to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv. The authorized departure of dependents, as it is called, does not apply to the embassy, the officials said.

Jerusalem has been a frequent target of Palestinian suicide bombers. Tel Aviv also has suffered bloody attacks, but with less frequency.

There was no immediate word how many American dependents would leave.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Colin Powell, who has talked three times to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon since Saturday, said Israeli forces had no intention of permanently occupying Palestinian-held towns, villages and cities on the West Bank.

"I would guess it will take them a couple of weeks," Powell said on NBC's "Today" about the Israeli military drive. "I hope this will end quickly, but I can't predict when the Israelis will make the judgment that they can withdraw."

Powell also spoke to Prime Minister Ali Abul-Ragheb of Jordan, who told him that Israeli aggression was threatening the stability of the region, the Petra news agency said.

Abul-Ragheb urged the Bush administration to end Israel's siege on Arafat's headquarters at Ramallah, on the West Bank, and to force Israel to withdraw all its troops from Palestinian-held areas, the Jordanian agency said.

The Bush administration is not branding the Palestinian leader a terrorist because there is more he can do to further the Mideast peace process, Powell said.

"There are terrorist activities, we see them every day," Powell said, referring to suicide bombings in Israel. "But Chairman Arafat is the head of the Palestinian Authority, an organization we help create," and has been working within the process.

"We still believe there is more he can do and we are asking him to do more and it would not serve our purpose right now to brand him individually as a terrorist," Powell said on CBS' "The Early Show."

Powell's treatment of Arafat was more restrained than the rhetoric President Bush directed against the Palestinian leader Monday.

"There will never be peace so long as there is terror, and all of us must fight terror," Bush said. "I'd like to see Chairman Arafat denounce the terrorist activities that are taking place, the constant attacks."

Meanwhile, the State Department appealed to Israel to "carefully consider the consequences" of its military thrust into the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Arafat is trapped inside his Palestinian Liberation Organization headquarters.

And Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld linked Iran, Iraq and Syria to the terror attacks on Israel, accusing the three nations of "inspiring and financing a culture of political murder and suicide bombing."

The overall aim was to register U.S. resolve against terrorists who have subjected Israel to the deadliest series of bombings in its difficult 54-year history.

Bush appealed to Arafat to order an end to the assaults on Israel and on settlers and soldiers on the West Bank. Suicide bombing in the name of religion is nothing but terror, he said.

"There will never be peace so long as there is terror, and all of us must fight terror," Bush said. "I'd like to see Chairman Arafat denounce the terrorist activities that are taking place, the constant attacks."