Glass shards, twisted metal, blood and body parts were strewn across the asphalt at the crowded Mahane Yehuda market, which has been the scene of several other recent bombings.

Witnesses reported seeing five white sheets covering remains, but it was not clear whether they were full bodies.

Israel Radio identified the bomber as Nidal Daraghmeh, a woman from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank that has been the scene of the deadliest fighting during Israel's 2-week-old military offensive in the West Bank.

A photographer said he saw the severed head of a woman at the scene.

Israel TV said Secretary of State Colin Powell was at a nearby helipad at the time of the attack, waiting to board a helicopter that would take him to Israel's tense border with Lebanon.

Powell had met earlier in the day with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in his effort to reach a peace accord between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer took Powell for a brief helicopter tour of the scene before he left the city.

The bomber set off her explosives off shortly after 4 p.m., when shoppers hunt for pre-Sabbath bargains at the marketplace.

Police Chief Mickey Levy said the bomber failed to reach the heart of the market or get onto a bus because of tight security, so "he exploded himself as he was trying to get on bus."

A witness who gave only his first name, Shimon, said he was standing at the bus stop when the bomb went off. "The body of the terrorist fell on me and we were pushed into the Hava bakery," he told Israel Radio. "I couldn't move around because there were pieces of flesh and bodies around me."

David Baker, a spokesman for Sharon, called the blast "another murderous attack by Palestinian terrorists against innocent Israelis at the busiest time of the week in the busiest market in Jerusalem."

"It is clear that Arafat and the Palestinian Authority exist for one purpose, spreading terror," Baker said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,50154,00.html