March 10, 2002	Sunday	Zilhaj 25, 1422

THE HAGUE, March 9: The Netherlands is trying to get the European Union and the United States to jointly ask Israel to end military action against the Palestinians, the foreign ministry said on Saturday.

“The Netherlands proposed a joint EU-US statement to the Israeli government calling for an immediate end to the military repression, which is leading nowhere,” ministry spokesman Hans Janssen said.

He said the Dutch had been hoping to get the details hammered out so that the joint declaration could have been sent to the Israelis on Friday, but no deal had been concluded.

Pending a possible agreement with Washington, the Dutch proposal resulted in a toughly-worded EU statement which was presented to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Friday by Spain, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

The United States is coming under mounting pressure to use its influence in the Middle East, where the bloodshed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been surging out of control.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fisher also stressed the need for joint EU-US action on Saturday.

“Without the United States, things won’t get better there,” he told Bayerischer Rundfunk, a regional radio station. “But the United States alone cannot do it all,” he said.

Fischer, who toured the troubled region in February and met with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders, also called on the United Nations, Russia, and “moderate Arab states, like Egypt or Jordan” to come together in an attempt to stem the escalating conflict.—AFP