CRETE, May 27: As US President George W. Bush prepared a Middle East visit to talk peace with Israel and Palestinians, European Union foreign ministers meeting in Crete on May 26-27 promised continuing efforts to end violence in the region.

Shrugging off Israeli demands that the international roadmap must only be US-led, Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou insisted at a Euro-Mediterranean ministerial meeting — attended also by Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom — that the EU would “remain engaged in the Middle East peace process.”

The peace roadmap just approved by Israel and endorsed several weeks ago by the Palestinians was a “common project” hammered out by a diplomatic quartet including the EU, the United States, Russia and the United Nations, insisted Papandreou, speaking for the current Greek EU presidency. The four-member group was set to meet again after next week’s summit talks between US President George W. Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Premier Mahmoud Abbas, he added.

EU diplomats say they have few illusions that only the US can pressure Israel into implementing the roadmap which it finally accepted on May 25. “We have to be pragmatic, Europe does not have much leverage with Israel. We also know that the security phase monitoring has to be led by the US,” said a senior EU diplomat. But once the peace process got under way, Palestinians would need EU support and the US would also admit that it needed help from Europeans. “We are full players in the quartet,” the diplomat said.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer described the roadmap as “Europe’s baby,” adding that the EU had been urging Washington to step up its involvement in Middle East efforts for several months.

Meanwhile, defying Israeli and US demands that all foreign visitors must shun contacts with Yaser Arafat, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin used a recent visit to the Palestinian territories to hold a joint news conference in Ramallah with the Palestinian leader.

De Villepin also met Palestinian lawmakers and civilian leaders in eastern sector of Al Quds making him the first foreign official in many years to hold talks with Palestinians in the section of the city that was occupied in 1967.

The French foreign minister said he gave Arafat a letter from French President Jacques Chirac expressing hope for peace and encouraging the Palestinians to continue on the road of reforms.

Arafat said he was relying on the EU to push forward the roadmap and guarantee its implementation without any changes.

Europe’s “commitment as a strategic ally” was hailed by Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath in Crete. “Without the EU there would be no roadmap,” Mr Shaath told reporters. Arab foreign ministers at the meeting also made no secret of their need for EU backing in getting their message across to the US and Israel.

Underlining their support for the EU, both Syria and Lebanon which had earlier boycotted Euro Med encounters in protest at Israel’s presence, sent their foreign ministers to Crete.

The message from Israel was unambiguous, however. Wary of what Israel views as European governments’ pro-Arab and pro-Palestinian sympathies Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom cautioned Euro Med participants that only the US could unblock the road to Middle East peace. A US-led peace effort would make “it much easier for both parties to come to the table and negotiate,” Mr Shalom insisted.