The President of the European Union, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Piquehas, has suggested that Palestinians suspected by Israel of killing an Israeli cabinet minister should be judged by an international court.
"They cannot be handed over to Israel, contrary to what they (Israel) want, but what we are trying to achieve is the organisation of a fair trial, with all possible guarantees," Pique said.
Palestinians suspected of involvement in the killing of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi last October are currently surrounded in Yasser Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah.
The buildings have been at the centre of a siege enforced by the Israeli army since the beginning of its military offensive in the West Bank on March 29.
Pique told a press conference that the EU believed international law supported the Palestinian viewpoint that the men did not have to be handed over to Israel.
A precedent for such an international court already exists with the example of the Scottish court set up in The Netherlands following the blowing-up of a plane over the southwest Scottish town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988 which killed a total of 270 people.
The minister also said the EU remained opposed to any Israeli attempt to penetrate the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem where close to 200 people have taken refuge over the past three weeks.
Aside from a number of clerics, there are also tens of armed Palestinian militants in the building believed by Christians to mark the birthplace of Jesus.
Speaking in Valencia, where a meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean (Euromed) group, which links EU members will countries bordering the Mediterranean is taking plave, Pique said he saw the meeting as a chance to re-launch cooperation between member countries and possibly contribute to a revived economic backing for the Middle east peace process from the EU.
"We are going to make a great effort so that this (meeting) is seen as a relaunch of the Barcelona process and leads to something concrete rather than just declarations or demonstrations of intent," Pique said.
Euromed began in 1995 to foster more cooperation between the European Union and 12 Mediterranean-basin partners in what has become known as the Barcelona process. AFP