RESCUERS KEEP HOPE ALIVE IN EMBASSY RUBBLE.

Byline: Edith M. Lederer Associated Press 

Urging trapped and weakened survivors not to give up, rescue teams took hope themselves Sunday from the whispered response of a woman wedged in the debris - while lifting 20 more dead out of the wreckage near the U.S. Embassy.

The death count from Friday's nearly simultaneous bombings in Kenya and Tanzania rose to 210, including 12 Americans. The body of the last missing American, Consul General Julian Bartley, was identified Sunday. His son Jay, a university student, also died.

More Americans joined search-and-rescue efforts Sunday that hadn't slowed - and still were turning up survivors - two days after the blasts.

Americans, Kenyans and Tanzanians mourned the dead in Sunday church and memorial services, praying for the thousands injured and scores missing. Roman Catholic Archbishop Rafael Ndingi reminded that retribution is God's business: ``Forgive the one who is the cause of this.''

All but 10 of the 210 dead were killed in the Nairobi blast. A total of 4,877 people were injured; about 560 remain hospitalized. All 12 American deaths were in Nairobi.

Several hundred U.S. investigators were ``setting up shop'' to find out who was behind the attacks, according to embassy spokesman Bill Barr. The FBI has said its top priority is to determine what type of explosive device was used and what vehicle carried it to the scene.

Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi visited the devastated embassy site Sunday morning and said there were some leads but did not elaborate. There were no reports of suspects in custody, and police denied arresting an Arabic-speaking man seen being taken into custody by officers soon after the blast.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, speaking on NBC's ``Meet the Press,'' suggested the U.S. government would retaliate if necessary.

``The memory of the United States is very long, and our reach is very far,'' she said. ``There is no statute of limitations on any of these crimes.''

About 200 Americans, including relatives of victims, investigators and rescue workers, attended a private 90-minute nondenominational service at U.S. Ambassador Prudence Bushnell's residence.

Bushnell, her hands and split lip bandaged, presided over the service, which Barr said was ``largely a celebration of the people we knew, a service to honor our people, our colleagues, our friends.''

With local hospitals overwhelmed, a U.S. C-141 cargo plane flew 15 critically injured victims to Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Sunday for treatment. Another flight was planned for today.

A 64-member emergency search and rescue team from Fairfax County, Va., arrived with four dogs Sunday and immediately joined rescue operations at the embassy building and other bomb-damaged buildings nearby. A French military-civilian unit also came to help.

Jim Strickland, an American search-and-rescue expert who was at the bombed-out federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, said he found a similar scene in Nairobi.

``The perimeter looks a lot like Oklahoma City,'' he said.

Using a 150-ton crane, drills and blowtorches, an Israeli team was trying to free a woman named Rose trapped in a very difficult spot in the collapsed Ufundi Cooperative building adjacent to the embassy.

``I just told her to hold on, we're coming for her . . . and she said, yes. But now she's very weak,'' said Bob Nasser, head of the Kenyan disaster coordination team at the site.

Rescuers dug tenaciously and called on anyone caught in the rubble not to lose hope. The discovery of Rose lifted spirits.

Rose was trapped near businessman Gaitara Nganga, who was pulled from the rubble Saturday night after 36 hours.

``Her (Rose's) face is burned, but she's talking,'' said John Sparrow of the International Committee of the Red Cross. ``During the past two days, she developed a relationship with Gaitara. . . . They talked and kept each other's spirits up.''

A second woman also was reported to be alive, not far from Rose, he said.

``I still believe there are people alive down there,'' Nasser said.

Another Israeli team searching floor to floor with rescue dogs found a woman and her son, frightened but not badly hurt, on the 20th floor of the damaged 22-story Cooperative Bank of Kenya building next to the embassy.

Lt. Col. Ofer Loefler, spokesman for the Israeli rescue team, said the woman ran in after the blast to find her son, who is about 12. ``They were afraid to come down,'' he said.

The American and Kenyan governments on Sunday thanked Israel for its rescue assistance.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that early indications were that the bombings were the result of ``international terrorism centered on Islamic fundamentalism.''

Netanyahu, speaking in Jerusalem, also offered the help of Israeli intelligence agencies in tracking down the bombers.

Israeli and U.S. officials have said they are looking at possible involvement by exiled Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden, who lives in Afghanistan. Bin Laden has threatened a holy war against U.S. interests.

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Photo

Photo: Rescuers carry Gaitara Nganga, found alive after 36 hours in a collapsed building next to the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.

Hadar Cohen/Associated Press