Demonstrations erupted across the Middle East in condemnation of Israel's assassination of the spiritual leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas yesterday. Arab and EU governments said the strike had scuttled any prospect of reviving the peace process.

　　Islamic groups vowed revenge, with Mohammed Mahdi Akef of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood warning: "There can be no life for the Americans and Zionists (Israelis) in the region."

　　Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak - a principal player in the peace process - told reporters the missile attack on the quadriplegic Yassin was "a savage act."

　　Asked how it would affect the peace process, Mubarak replied: "What peace process when the situation is on fire?"

　　Israeli helicopter gunships killed Yassin as he was being wheeled out of a mosque near his home in Gaza at dawn yesterday. The Israeli targeted missile strike killed seven other people and wounded 17.

　　While the United States, Japan and Australia called for calm, Britain and European nations condemned the killing as an affront to international law.

　　Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat declared three days of mourning and said the Israelis had "crossed all red lines." Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia called the killing "one of the biggest crimes that the Israeli government has committed."

　　Mubarak canceled plans for Egyptian legislators to take part in a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty in the Israeli parliament today. The treaty was the first between Israel and an Arab state.

　　"This is an embarrassment to Egypt," said Dia'a Rashwan, an expert on radical Islam with Egypt's Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "Egypt was directly involved in bringing Hamas and Jihad closer to the Palestinian authority and bringing about a cease-fire. Targeting Yassin is a direct blow to these efforts."

　　Rashwan said the move would only create something more dangerous: "When an organization losses its head, it splits, becomes less centralized - and this can only lead to more extremism and fanaticism."

　　Jordan's King Abdullah II, another broker in the peace process, said the killing "annoyed and pained" him. It was "a crime" that would lead only to more violence.

　　Jordanian Prime Minister Faisal al-Fayez said the killing jeopardizes the peace process as it will "escalate the circle of violence and instability in the region and will lead to more bloodshed."

　　Syrian President Bashar Assad condemned it as "the climax of terrorism that Israel is continuously practicing."

　　The foreign ministers of Jordan and Syria changed their schedules to fly to Cairo for urgent talks with their Egyptian counterpart.

　　Arab states called on the world to "press Israel to halt its terrorist operations and to end the occupation of the Palestinian and Arab territories." Their statement was issued by the Gulf Cooperation Council, which groups Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

　　In Saudi Arabia, Islamist lawyer Mohsen al-Awaji said Yassin's legacy would be an unstoppable movement: "Ahmed Yassin left behind him a school that all regimes and religious institutions are powerless to resist or contain."

　　In Egypt, about 7,000 students demonstrated at Cairo's Al-Azhar University as soon as word got out of Yassin's death.

　　"When Sharon crosses the line, we must kill him and his soldiers," students chanted.

　　(The Associated Press)