Britain has protested against the Israeli government's decision to ban Palestinian delegates from attending a peace conference in London next week.

The Israeli decision came as part of the punishment measures which followed the suicide bombings which left 22 dead in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, who only found out about the development after hearing the news on the radio, was further angered after his Israeli counterpart, Binyamin Netanyahu, breached diplomatic rules by publishing extracts of a private conversation between the two.

Netanyahu, according to the Israeli transcript, told the foreign secretary that the bombings ruled out "business as usual" and said that Britain should replicate the views of president Bush who argues "that leaders compromised by terror cannot be partners for peace".

Straw responded, according to the transcript, by saying that Israel is not "concentrating on dealing with terrorism, it is striking at [Palestinian] delegates".