BRUSSELS - The European Union plans to restart high-level contacts with
Syria by sending foreign policy chief Javier Solana to Damascus for talks on Lebanon and Middle East peace, Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern said on Friday.

Solana said Friday he will travel to Syria next week on a previously unannounced visit to discuss the situation in Lebanon.

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"I'll go to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and then to Syria," Solana said during a summit of EU leaders in Brussels.

"The council has mandated me to undertake this trip," Solana said.

His spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said Solana would leave for the Middle East on Monday and be in Damascus on Wednesday.

French President Jacques Chirac has been blocking EU contacts with Syria over its alleged role in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. But a spokesman for Chirac confirmed Solana's trip Friday.

"We confirm that an agreement has been found on the terms of reference of a personal mission by Javier Solana to go to Syria in the name of the EU," the spokesman told reporters at an EU summit in Brussels.

Ahern, whose country has troops in the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, said there was a growing recognition the bloc needed to re-engage with Damascus because of its central role in the region.

"The intention is that Javier Solana will go to Damascus and I very much welcome that," Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern told Reuters on Friday after EU foreign ministers discussed Lebanon and the Middle East on the margins of a summit.

"We want to engage with them [Syria] as a regional partner. They are very important with huge influence. As we know from our own experience, rather than turning our back on people, diplomacy is what is required."

In Lebanon, the opposition, including Syrian allies Hezbollah and Amal, is struggling for power with the anti-Syrian governing coalition. There have been recent signs from both sides of a desire to end the deadlock.

EU leaders reaffirm that PA government must meet international demands
Leaders of European Union nations reaffirmed Friday that the new Palestinian unity government must meet international demands before the resumption of direct financial aid.

A final statement from the two-day summit said the 27 EU nations stand ready to work with a legitimate Palestinian government that adopts international demands to stop violence, accept Israel's right to exist and recognize earlier agreements.

The statement signaled no change in the EU's position that it will only resume direct financial aid payments to the Palestinian government if the new government meets those demands.

The draft conclusions specifically welcomed progress made at a Hamas-Fatah meeting in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, last month that produced a power-sharing accord between the rival factions.

"The Mecca agreement opens the way and we hope it will lead to understanding, peace and stability," said French President Jacques Chirac. "We can only approve of it."

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said a Palestinian government would already go a long way toward meeting international demands if it would respect earlier Israeli-Palestinian deals, something Hamas agreed to do at the Mecca talks.

"By respecting previous agreements - that is really key - you have an implicit recognition of the right of Israel to exist," he said on the sidelines of the summit.

Israel and the United States are seeking a more explicit recognition.

In Gaza City, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh appealed to the Europeans to accept the new government, which he said is expected to be formed within the next days.

"I tell the European Union summit that it is necessary to deal with the Mecca agreement, which reflects Palestinian will and the national consensus," he said. "We call on them to take the decision to lift the siege and to work with the Palestinian government."

At the summit, Chirac pressed other European leaders to support the Palestinian efforts to form a coalition government, which would draw in more moderate elements of Fatah alongside the radical Islamic group Hamas.

"We note the important step taken in Mecca," said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, "where the February 8 agreement pledges to respect certain agreements with Israel even though it does not explicitly recognize Israel."

French diplomats said at the summit that the power-sharing deal between Hamas and Fatah was a first step toward the realization of the conditions set by the EU, U.S. and others for the restoration of direct financial aid to the Palestinian government.

The funds were frozen after Hamas, which the EU and U.S. consider a terrorist organization, gained control of the Palestinian legislature and cabinet in elections last year.

The EU has said that the movement toward unity among the Palestinians was an important step forward following outbreaks of fighting between Fatah and Hamas militants.

Bildt warned, however, that the EU would have to wait and see how the coalition talks pan out before the EU can make strong commitments of cooperation.

Although a new World Bank report says international aid increased slightly to $1.2 billion in 2006, much of that was in direct humanitarian payments. The withdrawal of international support for the government coincided with a drop of at least 8 percent in the Palestinians' per capita gross domestic product last year.