Jet Quenching and Cronin Enhancement in A+A at s¹/2=20 vs 200 AGeV

The sensitivity of semi-hard (p_\perp < 10 GeV) hadron production to parton energy loss in high energy nuclear collisions is studied via the HIJING1.35 model. We test the model on recent WA98 data on 160 AGeV Pb+Pb -> pi^0 up to 4 GeV/c and while these data are reproduced, the results depends sensitively on the model of the Cronin effect. At (RHIC) collider energies (s^1/2 > 200 AGeV), on the other hand, semi-hard hadron production becomes insensitive to the above model and is thus expected to be a cleaner probe of jet quenching signature associated with non-Abelian radiative energy loss.