Palestinian leaders reacted with anger and dismay on Wednesday to Obama saying Jerusalem should be Israel's undivided capital.

"Well, obviously, it's going to be up to the parties to negotiate a range of these issues. And Jerusalem will be part of those negotiations," Obama told CNN when asked whether Palestinians had no future claim to the city.

Asked if he opposed any division of Jerusalem, Obama said: "As a practical matter, it would be very difficult to execute. And I think that it is smart for us to -- to work through a system in which everybody has access to the extraordinary religious sites in Old Jerusalem but that Israel has a legitimate claim on that city."

In Washington on Wednesday, Obama told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby group, that if elected president in November, he would work for peace with a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

"Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided," he told the lobby group.

The United States and other powers do not regard Jerusalem as Israel's capital -- the U.S. and other embassies are in Tel Aviv -- and do not recognize Israel's annexation of Arab East Jerusalem following its capture in the 1967 Middle East war.

The outgoing U.S. president, George W. Bush, has sponsored peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in the hope of securing a deal on a Palestinian state before he leaves office in January.

One of the thorniest issues is resolving the rival Israeli and Palestinian demands on the future of Jerusalem.

(Writing by Howard Goller; Editing by Peter Cooney)

AN AUSTRALIAN doctors' group is pushing to have former prime minister John Howard charged with war crimes for sending troops to Iraq.

The Medical Association for the Prevention of War said the war was illegal because it was not backed by the United Nations.

Association spokesman Robert Marr said Mr Howard committed Australian troops to the war on the basis of misleading information about weapons of mass destruction. He said the medical group was supporting a legal brief prepared by International Criminal Court Action Victoria that would be sent to the court. Dr Marr said more than 650,000 Iraqi citizens had died as a result of the war.

Mr Howard said last week that while the war's cost had been heavy he believed it had been right. He said he would not have brought the troops home at this point.

Valmi - Villagers in southern Greece sifted through the rubble of homes and businesses for valuables and belongings on Monday, a day after a strong earthquake killed two people and injured dozens of others.

The tremor measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale struck 54km south of the western port city of Patras on Sunday, injuring 125, destroying homes. Hundreds of villagers spent the night in tents, in cars or sleeping bags in town squares, too scared to return to their homes, as aftershocks continued through the night.

"We are destroyed," said a resident of the village of Valmi, one of the hardest hit, who did not want to be named. "The quake was so strong that even graves opened up."

A Reuters photographer said more than half of the village's 46 homes had collapsed.

"There is a tent wherever there is space," said Reuters photographer Yiorgos Karahalis. "Shopowners are cleaning up smashed glass to get their businesses going again and trying to get their lives back on track."

Tents for the homeless
Three hundred tents were sent to the region for about 250 people who are estimated to have been left homeless.

In the village of Kato Achaia, also hard hit by the quake, one man was killed when a building collapsed and an elderly woman who was taken to hospital with injuries died of a heart attack.

Authorities said most of those hospitalised had minor injuries. There were no foreigners among them.

One nine-year-old girl was among a handful of people who were trapped in collapsed buildings and rescued soon after the quake.

"Aftershocks will continue for months. We are expecting aftershocks measuring 5-5.5 on the Richter scale," an official at the Athens Geodynamical Institute told Reuters.

Greek emergency services have sent more than 200 firemen to the region, while the government has offered immediate cash assistance of €3 000 to those whose houses have been hit.

Sunday's quake was felt in Athens and as far away as Italy. In 1999, a deadly tremor measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale killed 143 people in the Greek capital. Greece is often rattled by quakes, but most do not cause serious damage.

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