Jerusalem, July 31--(AFP) Reverend Jesse Jackson cancelled his visit with the spiritual leader of Hamas Wednesday after the Palestinian Islamist group claimed a bomb attack on a Jerusalem university that killed seven people, members of his entourage and Hamas officials said.

Jackson had been due to visit Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the paralysed spirtual leader of the radical group, to urge him to end suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli civilians, members of his entourage said.

But Jackson called off the trip to Sheikh Yassin's Gaza City residence after the group claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a cafeteria at Hebrew University that left seven people dead and injured around 70, they added.

Hamas officials confirmed Jackson had aborted his trip.

Jackson, a two-time Democratic candidate for the presidential nomination and a key figure in the 1960s civil rights movement, arrived in Tel Aviv Saturday at the head of a multi-denominational delegation of religious leaders that was to spend five days in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Jackson met on Monday with Arafat.