EU pressure on Palestinian, Israeli foreign ministers to stop violence

The European Union has called on Mr Yasser Arafat to break up the terrorist networks connected to Hamas and Islamic Jihad and asked Israel to withdraw its forces from Palestinian territory. The move represents a policy shift for the EU which, until now, has resisted referring to Hamas and Islamic Jihad as terrorist organisations.

The Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres and his Palestinian counterpart, Mr Nabil Shaath, were in Brussels yesterday for talks with EU foreign ministers. Mr Peres welcomed the EU statement and insisted that Israel's military action in the West Bank and Gaza was mounted in self-defence.

"Israel does not intend to dismantle the Palestinian Authority. Nor do we intend to topple Mr Arafat. Nor do we believe the problem can be solved militarily," he said.

Mr Peres held separate talks with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, who expressed concern at the ferocity of Israel's reaction to recent terrorist attacks. And he said that Israeli demands that Mr Arafat should prevent suicide attacks ought to be tempered by understanding for the Palestinian leader's difficulties.

"It's unrealistic and we believe unsafe to ask Arafat to go beyond a certain point without supporting political measures," he said. "Israeli attacks on Palestinian security forces and their infrastructure and restrictions on their movements make their task all the more difficult in practical terms as well as making it politically more difficult," he added.

Mr Shaath complained that, although the EU statement called on Israel to withdraw its forces, it did not condemn what he called "Israeli terror".

He said the document reflected internal divisions and external pressures.

"We have seen the EU unfortunately split at the United Nations. I know there are pressures and probably some of those pressures are made by the United States and Israel," he said.

The EU foreign policy chief, Mr Javier Solana, was due to travel to the Middle East last night to urge both sides to end reciprocal attacks. He will report on his talks to EU leaders at Friday's summit in the Belgian royal palace at Laeken.

Mr Peres complained that some countries that had not experienced terrorism were too quick to condemn Israeli action to combat it and he hinted that the US was guilty of double standards.

"Imagine if the US knew the people who hijacked the four planes. Wouldn't they kill them? And nobody would say a word. It's very easy for countries that don't have the problem to give advice to those who do have the problem," he said.