By Daisy Ayliffe - 25th July 2006
Europe’s foreign ministers will hold emergency talks on the Middle East next Tuesday following an international crisis summit in Rome.
The Finnish EU presidency has scheduled a special meeting to discuss escalating conflict in the Lebanon just before Brussels shuts down for the summer.
Topping the agenda will be a proposed international peacekeeping, opening aid routes in war-zones and EU-wide line on recent events.
UN, EU, US, Russian and key Arab leaders have stepped up calls for an immediate halt to violence in the Middle East.
In difficult discussions in Rome on Wednesday, UN secretary general Kofi Annan led efforts to overcome US resistance to an immediate ceasefire.
Washington insists this could undermine efforts to achieve a durable peace in the region.
Addressing journalists during the crisis meeting, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said any ceasefire should be subject to tough conditions.
“We want to end the violence in a sustainable manner. We have had too many broken ceasefires and too many spasms of violence,” she said.
“We cannot return to the status-quo ante.”
Rice’s Rome speech made no explicit reference to Israel.
The secretary of state instead urged full implementation of UN Resolution 1559 – that calls for the disarmament of militias in Lebanon.
But Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said more needed to be done to prevent his country being “cut to pieces by Israel.”
“We want to liberate the Lebanese territories still occupied by Israel,” he insisted.
“This will put the process on the right track so that we can gain control of our territories. This will lead armed groups to see they do not need to be there.”
“Hizbullah is a Lebanese political party represented in the Lebanese council of ministers,” he added.
Calls for an end to the fighting between Israeli troops and Hizbullah have gathered urgency following the deaths of four UN military observers in an Israeli attack.
The incident, claimed as a mistake by Israel, has been condemned by the international community.
Annan later described it as "apparently deliberate."
Fraught discussions about the shape of an international peace-keeping force were also key to the Rome talks.
Although Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair has been drumming up support for an international force, nations expected to contribute have shown reluctance to commit troops without a ceasefire in place.
The Lebanese premier explained that crucial details would need to be fixed in the days ahead.
“We have asked for assistance. In the coming days we will say what form and what mandate it will have,” he said.
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