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    BEIJING, August 2-- Diplomatic pressure continues to mount in the Middle East. Ministers at the European Union have called for an immediate end to hostilities in Lebanon, followed by a prolonged cease-fire. They held a one-day emergency meeting, examining the role of the EU in the unstable region.

    European Union foreign ministers held an emergency meeting on Tuesday, calling for an immediate end to hostilities in Lebanon.

    After four hours of talks, foreign ministers from the 25-nation bloc issued a statement calling on all parties to stop fighting and start working on a sustainable cease-fire.

    The statement also said EU partners are ready to contribute troops to an international force in Lebanon.

    Benita Ferrero-waldner, EU External Relations Commissioner said: "We need an immediate and sustainable ceasefire, the release of hostages , the willingness for the European Union to take an important role in any international peacekeeping force, backed, of course, by a clear mandate of the Security Council and importance for all sides to act in accordance with international law in particular in relation to civilians caught up in the fighting, and there are still a lot."

    Erkki Tuomioji, Finnish Foreign Minister said: "For Lebanon, the European Union is the only

    international actor that they still have some trust in and confidence, this is not only the Lebanese, but this is a feeling more widely shared in the region. This is why we are now in a very crucial situation for the credibility of the European Union."

    There are minor differences in the wordings of the statements. But it is clear that the ministers are united in efforts to push for an immediate cease-fire in the region.

    (Source: CCTV.com)

     EU foreign ministers fail to call for immediate Mideast cease-fire


    BRUSSELS, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- European Union (EU) foreign ministers failed on Tuesday to call for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah as initially proposed by Finland, which holds the rotating EU presidency.

    Instead, they called for "an immediate cessation of hostilities to be followed by a sustainable cease-fire."

    The outcome of Tuesday's extraordinary meeting of the foreign ministers, at least in the eyes of European Parliament head Josep Borrell, is a failure.

    "The Council (of foreign ministers) must adopt a clear resolution today calling for an immediate cease-fire by both sides. Anything else will be a failure for the EU," Borrell told an extraordinary Conference of Presidents, which organizes the work of the parliament and its bodies, earlier Tuesday.

    Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, who chaired Tuesday's foreign ministers' meeting, confirmed at the Conference of Presidents that the draft conclusions of the foreign ministers' meeting did contain an appeal for an immediate cease-fire.

    The wording has to be changed in the final document owing to resistance of Britain and Germany, it is widely reported.  Full story <<<