EU foreign ministers to hold talks with Palestinian, region officials

Jan 25, 2009, 13:00 GMT

Brussels - European Union foreign ministers Sunday were to hold dinner-time talks in Brussels with Palestinian, Egyptian, Jordanian and Turkish officials in a bid to secure a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and kick-start the stalled Middle East peace process.

The meeting follows similar talks held on Wednesday by EU top diplomats with Israel's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni.

And it comes just hours after Egyptian officials met with representatives of Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, and other Palestinian factions to try and turn the one-week ceasefire into a durable truce.

Speaking to the satellite news network al-Arabiya earlier in the day, Ayman Taha, a representative of Hamas from Gaza, said that the group would not agree to an open-ended truce, but was prepared to negotiate an 18-month ceasefire.

Hamas representatives had previously said they would not agree to a truce for longer than a year.

The EU has offered to deploy monitors to Gaza's border crossings in order to help allay Israeli fears that the passage of humanitarian aid may facilitate the smuggling of arms into the Strip.

Hamas has said it also wants Turkish monitors to join an EU mission.

The EU considers Hamas a terrorist organization, though some EU ministers have said direct talks with the group are necessary in order to secure a lasting peace in the Middle East.

During the talks, which are also aimed at mustering broad Arab support for the peace process, EU foreign ministers were also expected to welcome a decision by US President Barack Obama to appoint George Mitchell, a former US senator, as special envoy to the troubled region.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has worked with him before, says Mitchell is 'uniquely well-qualified' for the post.

'For our part, we in the European Union are ready to do what it takes to bring this conflict, finally, to an end,' Solana said in a statement published earlier this week.

EU foreign ministers were to meet again in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday for their regular General Affairs and External Relations Council.