MADRID, Spain -- An American blaming Syria and Iran for his wife's death in a jetliner bombing twice
 disrupted news briefings Wednesday at the Middle East peace conference.

 John Frick Root, an attorney from New York, tried to raise the issue at briefings held by Secretary of State
 James A. Baker III and Israel's deputy foreign minister, Benyamin Netanyahu.

 Root's 26-year-old wife, Hanne-Marie, was among 270 people killed when a bomb brought down Pan Am
 Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on Dec. 21, 1988.

 "What about Syria and Pan Am 103 , Mr. Secretary?" Root shouted at Baker. Baker did not respond, and
 security officers moved Root out of the room.

 Syria is participating in the Middle East negotiations that opened earlier in the day.

 Root had tried to ask Netanyahu how Israel could trust the Bush administration to ensure Israeli security
 when it could not guard the safety of American citizens.

 Spanish police allowed Root to remain but increased security to prevent him from taking the microphone
 and to block other people without accreditation from entering the press room, three miles from the
 conference hall.

 Root, 30, wandered through the press hall on Wednesday, carrying a color photograph of his wife and
 telling his tale to whomever would listen.

 The explosion killed 259 passengers and crew, and the falling wreckage killed 11 people on the ground.

 Investigators have not leveled any public blame for the Lockerbie blast, but Root said he is convinced the
 "terrorist bomb was put on the plane by Syria and Iran, with possibly a Libyan connection."

 "My purpose here is to remind the world that (Syrian President) Hafez Assad, the dictator of Syria, has
 killed more Americans than Saddam Hussein," Root said.

 "I deeply desire peace. And I don't think there can be peace without Syria. But I know that there cannot be
 peace as long as Syria continues its terrorist activities against Americans."