June 3, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1424

EVIAN, June 2: The European Union is considering drawing up a new Middle East “roadmap” for peace between Israel and its neighbours Syria and Lebanon, French President Jacques Chirac said on Monday.

Mr Chirac told journalists that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana thought such a move could complement the roadmap for Israel and the Palestinians set out by the “Quartet” of the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia.

“I believe that Mr Solana, for Europe, has thought about working out a roadmap for Syria and Lebanon,” Mr Chirac said at the Group of Eight summit.

“The Quartet’s road map hardly mentions this problem,” he said. “If there is a war between Israel and the Palestinians, there is also a war between Israel and Syria and Lebanon.”

Chirac stressed at a news conference that Solana was still considering the idea, which was not a French initiative but one to be proposed by the European Union if he goes through with it.

Syria, which has dominated Lebanon for the past 27 years with a strong military presence, has long demanded the return of the Golan Heights which Israel seized from it in the 1967 war.

US officials have accused Syria of backing Palestinian and Lebanese groups it classifies as terrorist. —Reuters