BRUSSELS - European Union foreign ministers sought ways to bolster the Middle East peace process Monday and were set to push Israeli and Palestinian leaders to live up to commitments to resume negotiations after six years of violence and stalemate.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said ministers were considering how the EU, United States and the UN "can support contacts" between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

A draft statement to be issued by the EU ministers at the end of their talks welcomed the Israel's partial transfer of Palestinian tax and customs revenues worth $100 million to Abbas. Israel froze the transfer of the money after the militant group Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel, won elections a year ago.

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The EU ministers were also to call for more bilateral talks between Olmert and Abbas "which should lead to meaningful negotiations on the final status" of ties.

However, EU officials readily acknowledge that failure so far between Abbas' Fatah party and Hamas to set up a so-called unity government to head the PA hampers any lasting peace in the region.

The EU aims to step up mediation efforts at a February 2 meeting in Washington of the Quartet of peace makers comprising the EU, U.S., UN and Russia. The Quartet backs a "road map" for Israeli-Palestinian peace which envisions the creation of a Palestinian state.

Separately, the EU foreign ministers said they "stand ready to support" Lebanon at an international donors' conference planned Thursday in Paris. Donors are expected to give around $5 billion in money and loans at the meeting.

The EU also called on Lebanese political factions to find a solution to the current deadlock, which threatens to further destabilize the country after last summer's war with Israel.

Following a tour of the region Sunday, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged Israel to freeze West Bank settlements and stop constructing the security fence. He hoped "the realities on the ground" brought about by Israeli settlement building would not "prevent a two-state solution from happening."

Solana said he was struck by the growth of settlements and the separation fence cutting into land that Palestinians want for a state.

"I had the opportunity to make a tour along the eastern part of Jerusalem and go to Abu Dis and its surroundings. You get really very shocked every time you go and you see the situation worse, the wall is more extended and settlements are more extended," Solana told reporters in Amman.

The EU official said there was a "window of opportunity" that the international community and the parties to the conflict should seize to revive talks that collapsed in 2001 and have remained deadlocked since Hamas took power.

"We think there is an opportunity now, an opportunity that should not be let go by to open the political process that should end up with the resolution of the conflict," he said.

Earlier on Sunday, Solana said the time was opportune for relaunching peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, thanks to the existence of "political will" on the part of all players he met recently.

Judging by "the talks I have had with different actors in the United States and in the region, I think the political will is there for moving the peace process," Solana told a press conference before leaving for Israel on the last leg of a regional tour.