“We briefed the ambassadors of the European Union this morning about the last attack that was carried out by the Islamic Jihad,” Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told a news conference.

“The instructions were coming from their leadership that is located in Syria and we see Syria as responsible by allowing those extremists to have their headquarters there, their training camps there, and to give them all the assistance that they’re asking,” he said.

“But at the same time we don’t think its only the problem that we’re facing from the Syrians. We believe that more needs to be done by the Palestinian leadership at the same time.”

The head of military intelligence, General Aharon Zeevi, briefed diplomats on the alleged connection between the attack -- claimed by exiled leaders of Islamic Jihad -- and Damascus, a foreign ministry source said.

Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara has rejected accusations that Damascus had a role in Friday’s bombing, which cast a shadow over tentative steps towards Middle East peace after more than four years of violence.

Earlier, visiting Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht held talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who stressed the importance of the European Union adding Hezbollah to its list of banned organisations, his office said.

Israel has long accused Hezbollah of funding attacks by Palestinian militant groups. A foreign ministry spokesman said it had “not been ruled out totally” that the Shiite militia was behind the Tel Aviv blast.

Sharon also pushed for Europe to clamp down on the flow of funds to Islamic Jihad’s larger Islamist rival, Hamas, his office said.

De Gucht said Israel had given him a memorandum on Hezbollah ahead of an EU meeting in March set to discuss whether or not to blacklist the group.

“In Belgium, this will be analysed thoroughly,” before the March meeting, he told the joint news conference with Shalom.

Sharon’s office said De Gucht also pledged Belgian support in Israel’s bid for membership of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based grouping of industrialized nations.