BOMB ROCKS LONDON\Blast casts doubt on IRA cease-fire.

Byline: Richard W. Stevenson The New York Times

Just an hour after reports that the Irish Republican Army had abandoned its 17-month-old cease-fire, a powerful bomb exploded in East London on Friday night, wounding about 100 people, shaking skyscrapers and leaving the Northern Ireland peace effort in tatters.

The blast occurred at 7:01 p.m. in a parking lot beneath a train station in London's docklands, near the Canary Wharf office complex, badly damaging a six-story building and sending glass from other buildings flying onto passers-by.

The police said that 33 people had been treated in local hospitals and that two of them were in critical condition. Most of the rest of the injuries were minor cuts and bruises.

The police said they had received a warning of a bomb in the area an hour earlier, and that they were evacuating the area when the bomb went off.

Earlier, a Dublin radio station received a statement, saying it was from the IRA, announcing that "the complete cessation of military operations will end at 6 p.m." because "selfish party political and sectional interests in the London Parliament have been placed before the rights of the people of Ireland."

It was not immediately clear whether the statement represented the views of the IRA leadership. Political analysts in Britain and Ireland said it was possible that the statement and the bomb were the work of a hard-line splinter group in the IRA that was unhappy with the organization's participation in the peace effort.

Political leaders in Britain and Ireland were reluctant to pronounce the peace effort dead. But leaders of the Protestant Unionist parties made clear that it would be hard for them ever to come to the negotiating table with Sinn Fein, the IRA's political arm.

And the bombing appeared likely to strain the already tense relationship between Britain, which has taken a cautious approach in dealing with the IRA, and Ireland, which had urged starting peace talks with the organization despite its unwillingness to begin giving up its explosives and other weapons.

Attempts to negotiate a permanent solution to Northern Ireland's sectarian conflict had been stalled in recent weeks, and the British government by some reports had received intelligence warnings of a possible return to terrorist violence.

Nonetheless, Friday night's rapid-fire events clearly caught the British and Irish governments by surprise and shocked residents of London who had hoped that the long terrorist campaign in their city was over for good.

The bombing was condemned by Prime Minister John Major of Britain and his counterpart in Ireland, John Bruton.

President Clinton, who visited Northern Ireland in November and has made the province's future a foreign policy priority for his administration, said he was "deeply concerned" by the situation.

A White House spokesman said the United States was contacting all parties to urge that they "continue their search for peace."

Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, said his reaction was one of "sadness," but he did not condemn the attack.

He said he regretted that "an unprecedented opportunity for peace has foundered on the refusal of the British government and the Unionist leaders to enter into dialogue on substantive negotiation."

But Adams added, "Sinn Fein's peace strategy remains as the main function of our party."

In Washington, an administration official said Adams had phoned the White House "with disturbing news" shortly before the bomb exploded in London, Reuters reported.

Asked if Adams might have known that a bomb would explode, the official replied: "Yes. He said he was hearing some very disturbing news, and he would call us back."

At the White House, Clinton said "the terrorists who perpetrated today's attack cannot be allowed to derail the effort to bring peace to the people of Northern Ireland - a peace they overwhelmingly support."

"For a year and a half, the people of the United Kingdom and Ireland have enjoyed living in peace, free to go about their daily lives without the threat of the bomb and the bullet," the president said in a written statement.

"The people want peace. No one and no organization has the right to deny them that wish."

Members of Congress called for new efforts to convene talks. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., who is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said, "This horrible incident should remind everyone of the critically important need for all parties to come to the table in good faith to negotiate a lasting peace."

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., called the reported end of the cease-fire "an extremely ominous development" that "makes talks more imperative than ever."

Leaders of the Protestant Unionist parties in Northern Ireland said the reported IRA statement and the bombing proved that they had been justified in not trusting the IRA's avowed peaceful intentions.

In September 1994, the IRA called a unilateral halt to its violent campaign to force Britain from Northern Ireland and unite the province with the overwhelmingly Catholic Republic of Ireland.

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Photo Police seal off an area in London's Docklands close to the scene of a bomb explosion Friday in which more than 100 people were injured. Associated Press