EU envoys will ask Sharon to end blockade

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will today meet European Union officials who hope to persuade him to renew peace talks with the Palestinians and lift a blockade that is crippling the Palestinian economy.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat met the two officials - European Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten and Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh - yesterday and said their involvement was crucial to reviving peacemaking.

"We will ... discuss with Sharon the possibility to continue peace talks and to stop this situation [the blockade]," said Lindh, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

The clampdown on the West Bank and Gaza Strip has severely limited the movement of goods and people since the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began almost six months ago.

Israel says it is trying to prevent militants from carrying out bomb attacks inside Israel, but Palestinians say they are being punished collectively.

Washington yesterday criticised some of the restrictions and disputed Israel's argument that they boosted Israelis' security.

Sharon, who says he will renew peace talks once the violence stops, convened his full cabinet for the first time since taking office last week.

He promised that he would ease the limits on most Palestinians and punish only those responsible for violence.

Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel would lift the closures of the West Bank cities of Hebron, Qalqilya, Bethlehem and Tulkarm. Hours later, roads around Hebron were opened to Palestinian traffic.

But the blockade remained on Ramallah. Sharon said it had been tightened after Israel learned a group of Palestinians was planning a "serious terrorist attack."

Israeli troops yesterday shot dead a Palestinian during clashes at trenches near Ramallah.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo called on the Arab world to help Palestinians in their bid to end Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"This is the beginning of war, not the end of it, and the war needs every single Arab's effort," he said.

Palestinian United Nations delegate Nasser al-Kidwa urged the UN Security Council to call an immediate meeting to discuss ways to protect Palestinians from Israeli soldiers - including a UN observer force.

US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher rebuffed the idea - already defeated by the council last December - saying Israel would need to approve any protection force.

But he also said Washington was very concerned about the blockade of Palestinian areas.

"We think that the economic pressure - the restrictions on movement, in particular - contribute to a deterioration in the situation of the [Palestinian] territories."

- REUTERS

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