November 18, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 22, 1424

BRUSSELS, Nov 17: The European Union stepped up pressure on Monday on Israel to stop boycotting EU officials who have met Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, but the Jewish state demanded a more “balanced” approach to the Middle East conflict from Europe.

EU and Israeli officials were meeting for annual talks overshadowed by serious differences over the peace process and by Israeli accusations that anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom pledged to do everything possible to cooperate with the EU, but also called on the bloc to take a “more balanced” attitude towards the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

“Europe can play a key role in the peace process, but it must play a more balanced attitude toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he told reporters ahead of a meeting with EU foreign ministers, who were likely to press him notably over a ban on contacts with EU Mideast envoy Marc Otte.

“Otherwise it will be more of the same, like it was in the last 30 years,” the Israeli minister said.

The EU has vowed to press Shalom over the talks ban, as well as over Israel’s security fence along the West Bank, during the two-day EU-Israel meeting in Brussels.

Trade issues were also to loom large in the talks — the EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner, and EU-Israel commerce is worth 22 billion euros (26 billion dollars) annually.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the EU wants above all to get the Middle East “road map” — drawn up by a quartet comprising the EU, the United States, the United Nations and Russia — back on track.

“For that we think it is important that our envoys and myself and all the ministers have the opportunity to see all the people who have a say in this process, including Palestinians at all levels,” he said.

On the security fence Solana added: “We think if the fence continues, the (Jewish) settlements continue, it will be very difficult to realise the two states approach,” referring to the road map’s aim of Israel and a Palestinian state living peacefully side by side.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has criticized Europe for not putting enough pressure on Arafat.

But the EU has in turn sharply criticized Israel’s diplomatic snub of people who have met Arafat.

Otte has been given the cold shoulder since a meeting last month with the Palestinian leader, who Israel insists is the main obstacle to peace.

The EU-Israel talks come barely a week after an EU opinion poll sparked a minor diplomatic spat between Brussels and Al Quds.

The poll of 7,500 people in the EU’s 15 member states found that Europeans believe Israel is the biggest threat to world peace — ahead of North Korea, Iran and the United States.—AFP