Israel says 'balanced' EU can play key Mideast role

Israel, breaking with its traditional suspicion of European Union support for the Palestinian cause, said yesterday it was keen for the bloc to play a more prominent role in the Middle East peace process.

Full of praise for Europe's efforts to end the uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom even shrugged off the EU's determination to keep lines of communication with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

"Among friends we can agree to disagree," Shalom told reporters after meeting counterparts from the 15-nation bloc.

"I don't accept the formula that existed for many years that Israel can live without Europe and Europe can live without Israel. If they can have a more balanced approach it will allow all of us to let them play an important role..." Although the EU is part of the "Quartet" sponsoring the "road map" for peace along with the United States, Russia and the United Nations, diplomats say it risks being marginalised by Washington's post-Iraq war commitment to resolving the crisis.

The EU, the biggest aid donor to the Palestinian Authority, has so far been left outside US moves to monitor compliance with the road map.

But in a draft declaration the foreign ministers said the bloc was ready to "contribute in a substantial way" to establishing an efficient third-party monitoring mechanism.

Spelling out steps that must be taken by both sides to the conflict, they stressed there could be no alternative to a swift and full implementation of the road map, which aims to end the Palestinian uprising with the promise of statehood by 2005.