The female suicide bomber who blew herself up in downtown Jerusalem on Sunday has raised the spectre of a new kind of terrorist: one wearing high heels and lipstick.

The woman, identified by Arab media as Shinaz Amuri, 24, killed herself and an 81-year-old Israeli man with the blast on Jaffa Road, the site of countless Palestinian attacks over the years. More than 100 people were wounded.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing, which differs from previous ones in several ways.

Neither Islamic Jihad nor Hamas, which were behind most previous attacks, have claimed responsibility.

So far, there have been no video-cassettes issued to the media carrying images of the bomber making a farewell speech; no triumphant parties held by the killer's family; no candies and sugared coffee. Her body remains unclaimed by any family member.

Israeli police have left open the possibility Ms. Amuri was carrying the explosives when they went off prematurely. However, the sophisticated weaponry indicates she was not acting alone.

A clerk at a shoe store on Jaffa Road is convinced she served the suicide bomber. Rivka Reuven told police a young Arab woman with a vacant look in her eyes, clutching a shopping bag, was in the store just moments before the explosion.

"She looked strange. She didn't look like someone from this world," said Ms. Reuven.

There are few female martyrs in fundamentalist Islamist movements; in fact, it is almost impossible to imagine al-Qaeda recruiting women with promises of virgins in paradise.

But terrorists in the Middle East are a different breed and from a different culture. Palestinian women have traditionally taken a more active role in public life and, on occasion, in the political cause.

Although Hamas opposes the use of women as kamikaze bombers, a spokesman recently noted, "It is a Muslim woman's right to fight against occupation and no fatwa forbids them from joining the struggle."

Since the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada 16 months ago, more than 30 suicide bombers have struck.

The profile of the attackers has expanded from unmarried Palestinian men from the territories to include Arab Israelis and now women.

Yarden Vatikai, a spokesman for Israel's Defence Ministry, acknowledged there is a need to broaden the list of suspects.

"They have sometimes been older than we thought, sometimes with children, or even Arab Israelis. Women are now one of the components," he said.

Sean Maloney, who teaches war studies at the Royal Military College in Kingston, predicts there will be more female suicide bombers as Israeli security forces crack down on more obvious suspects.

"If Israeli forces are profiling every Arab male of military age, then you'll choose another delivery means that can penetrate the defence of the target," he said.

Some terrorist groups, such as the Tamil Tigers, have routinely used women as suicide bombers. Females participate in 30%-40% of the Tigers' suicide missions, including the 1991 killing of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and an unsuccessful 1999 attempt on Sri Lanka's president.

Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tigers' leader, personally recruits young boys and girls, and spends years preparing them to die for the cause. Young women are anxious to prove their equality with their male peers and volunteer for missions.

Sunday's attack was not the first time female terrorists have struck in Israel, although usually their role has been as an accessory to male bombers, as a driver or transporter.

Islamic Jihad has dispatched a female suicide bomber, although she was caught before detonating herself. Hezbollah, in south Lebanon, has also used women on suicide missions.

There have also been several notable female operatives over the last few decades, including Leila Khaled, an international hijacker for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who was active in the 1970s.

In 1983 in Beirut, a woman drove the truck through the U.S. Marine barracks, bypassing a guard with an unloaded weapon, in an attack that killed 241 U.S. servicemen.

And, most famously, in 1978 a woman named Dalal al-Mughrabi led a group of terrorists who took over a bus on a road between Haifa and Tel Aviv. Thirty-seven Israeli civilians were killed, making it one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the nation's history.

According to Palestinian Media Watch, a program first broadcast in August, 2000, glorified Mughrabi, describing her as a "symbol for the Palestinian nation" who demonstrated the "Palestinian woman's role as a fighter."

Viewers were shown a scene in which Israeli Jews threaten a Palestinian with a pistol in the cemetery where Mughrabi is buried. Above her grave, she appears as a protective spirit.

It is also possible that Sunday's suicide bomber was recruited because she was already suicidal and was persuaded to die a martyr.

"Paradise is not the motivation for an 18-year-old. When people engage in acts of terrorism, they often want respect, posthumously, or it's an act of self-fulfilment," said John Thompson, executive director of the Mackenzie Institute, a Toronto-based think tank on security issues.

"They feel their life is going nowhere and this act gives their life some purpose."

No matter what the motivation, the attack has introduced a new threat to Jerusalem's busy streets. Israeli female border police have begun frisking Palestinian women entering the country from the Ramallah checkpoint at Aram junction.

Mr. Maloney predicted that as women are more closely scrutinized, terrorist groups will find new ways to target the enemy.

"What's next?," he asked. "Kids? Dogs? Geese?"