PORTLAND – While they caused “a tremendous loss of life,” last week’s terrorist suicide attacks provide a “glimmer of hope” for peace in the Middle East, former Sen. George Mitchell of Maine said.

The former Senate majority leader from Maine mourned the casualties from the hijacked planes that slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing more than 5,000 people.

But Mitchell said the Bush administration is laying the groundwork to identify and retaliate against the terrorists, while dealing with broader concerns of Middle East peace.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat earlier this week declared an informal truce, and Israel responded by halting military strikes. Sporadic violence has since broken out.

“We all should be cautious about this latest effort because so many previous efforts have not succeeded. But one of the consequences of this horrible atrocity may be a new dynamic in the Middle East,” said Mitchell, who headed an international commission under the Clinton administration that recommended a framework for peace.

In response to last week’s attacks, President Bush has sought to assemble a broad coalition of governments to combat terrorism.

“I think the administration is handling it in the right way, methodically investigating to determine who is responsible, while preparing a multilateral coalition and a broad scope of options,” said Mitchell, who was the top Senate Democrat a decade ago when Republican Bush’s father was president.

“I think we have to be patient and persevering. That will be the real test. This will not be easy or quick. The national spirit of today has to be sustained over a long period of time,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said his first thought after the attacks was “one of sorrow for the tremendous loss of life. Thousands of children now without parents face an uncertain future.”

After completing a 15-year Senate career in 1995, Mitchell brokered a peace accord in Northern Ireland. The pact, known as the Good Friday agreement, is now foundering.