EU seeks to boost relations with Israel, Arab states

BARCELONA - Leaders of the EU nations, Israel and its neighbors open a summit today at which Europe will push to boost relations by linking billions of dollars in economic aid to sweeping democratic and other reforms on the Mediterranean's southern and eastern rims.

Senior officials met yesterday to finalize three summit statements to be issued by the 35 Euro-Mediterranean leaders. A two-page text on the fight against terrorism proved most difficult, officials said.

"The implications are very pressing," said Giampaolo Scarante, an aide to Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, referring to terrorism and illegal immigration - two priority issues for the Europeans. "That's why expectations are very high."

The summit starts two days after the opening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, marking the first time Palestinians will be in charge of an international border. The event has bolstered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' message that independence can only be won through negotiations.

The European leaders - including German Chancellor Angela Merkel making her debut appearance at an international gathering - will likely use the opening of the Rafah border crossing to urge Israel and the Palestinians to stay the course toward a peaceful settlement of their conflict.

The Euro-Mediterranean leaders were to reaffirm their "determination to achieve a lasting and comprehensive settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict," according to a draft summit statement seen by The Associated Press.

The EU will deploy scores of border monitors under a deal with Israel, which ran the Rafah crossing before its withdrawal from Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is not expected to show up after his decision to abandon the Likud and start a new party. Another no-show will be Syrian President Bashar Assad, who was uninvited for allegedly orchestrating the February 14 murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in a Beirut truck bombing that killed 20 other people.

The Europeans look to their southern neighbors to jointly denounce terrorism and distance Islam from the notion that their religion condones the mindless, large-scale murder of innocent people.

The summit brings together the 25 EU leaders and those from Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.

The EU is eager to put its relations with Israel and its Arab neighbors on a new footing, linking EU economic and other aid to democratic and other reforms in the Mediterranean basin.

Its goal - first set out in 1995 - remains to help Israel and its neighbors make the Middle East a region of "peace, stability and prosperity" on the back of a Euro-Mediterranean free trade zone by 2010.

Europe wants Arab nations to do more to protect human rights, launching good governance and sensible free-market economic policies. If they do, the EU will open its market to their goods and services, and will provide economic and other aid in areas such as trade, migration, justice, transport, energy, environment and education.

The EU now spends $3.5 billion a year in grants and soft loans on its southern neighbors.

Yet, says Javier Solana, the EU security affairs chief, the region has become "a crossroads of all the perils of the modern world," including poverty, terrorism, undemocratic governments, uncontrolled migrations, disproportionate population growth, a proliferation of weapons and little trade among nations in the region.