Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said yesterday the European Union, Russia and the United Nations should keep the Middle East peace process moving if US participation goes on hold ahead of the presidential election. Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres, meanwhile, said he wanted the European Union to offer closer ties to Israelis and Palestinians if they reach a peace agreement.

Shaath told a security conference in Germany it would be a ?disaster? if Washington was too preoccupied with the November poll to keep pushing its ?road map? for peace and that other members of the Middle East Quartet should fill in. ?If the United States is too busy...maybe it could allow its partners, the EU, Russia and the United Nations to continue the work,? Shaath said. ?Staying inactive until November is disastrous for Palestinians and Israelis.?

The Quartet is attempting to implement a US ?road map? leading towards a peace settlement that includes the creation of an independent Palestinian state, but progress has stalled. ?The Quartet should re-meet and should really refuse the idea that the United States must stay inactive until the end of elections,? Shaath said.

US Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, responded to Shaath?s comments: ?I see no desire on the part of the president to wait it out. This is not going to be a vacation year.?

Peres, speaking after a joint meeting with Spanish Foreign minister Ana Palacio and Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat in the historic city of Toledo in Spain, said: ?Once the two parties reach an agreement for peace we should be admitted to the European Union and the EU will serve as a common ground for our economic and social life.?

New impetus to peace programme

Pressed on whether he was suggesting full EU membership for Israel and a Palestinian state after a peace accord, he replied ?there are variations how to do it.?

He said the EU had already extended its reach into the Mediterranean by adding Malta and Cyprus to a group of countries set to join the bloc in May. Palacio said she would raise the idea with other EU countries, adding that new impetus should be given to the peace process.

Spanish officials said Peres was proposing that the EU offer closer relations to Israel and the Palestinians to encourage progress in the peace negotiations. Israel and the Palestinian Authority are both part of the 27-member Euromed grouping, which brings together the 15 EU members and 12 southern Mediterranean partners.

Erekat and Peres were in Spain to attend a Socialist International meeting in Madrid this weekend.

Giora Eiland, head of Israel?s National Security Council, told the Munich conference the Jewish state remained committed to the road map as the preferred basis for negotiations. ?In the coming months, however, should it prove impossible to implement the road map, Israel will simply have no alternative other than to initiate unilateral disengagement. This will reflect a decision on our part to begin a process of separation between our two peoples,? he said.

PREPARATORY TALKS

Palestinian PM due to meet Sharon by end of February

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie said yesterday he expected to meet his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon before the end of February in an effort to revive the peace process. Since taking office last October, Qurie has avoided meeting Sharon, accusing him of poor faith in peacemaking. But US officials have been pressing the two Prime Ministers to meet to help revive the US-backed Middle East peace ?road map?. Preparatory talks have already been held between Qurie, alongside Palestinian Negotiations Affairs Minister Saeb Erekat and Sharon?s office directors. Qurie said he hoped another such preparatory meeting planned for February 15 would be the last. ?After that, the meeting (with Sharon) may be held. I think there will be a meeting before the end of February,? Qurie told reporters in Cairo after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Sharon, who launched the road map with Qurie?s predecessor Mahmoud Abbas and US President George W. Bush in June, has said he would welcome a meeting with the Palestinian premier but has made clear he will not promise any concessions in advance. Palestinians fear a summit would make Sharon look better in Washington?s eyes while bringing them nothing in return.