RAMALLAH, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) welcomed on Thursday the proposal of three European countries to hold a Middle East peace conference to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

    Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told reporters in Ramallah "the Palestinians welcome the proposal for an international peace conference to implement the roadmap plan for peace."

    He added that the PNA welcomes any exerted international effort to revive the stalled peace process, saying that the roadmap plan is basically calling for an international peace conference.

    The roadmap plan was initiated in 2003 by the International Quartet, which groups the U.S., Russia, the EU and the UN, in an effort to establish a viable Palestinian state living alongside Israel in peace by 2005, but the plan achieved little progress until now.

    Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced earlier on Thursday that a French-Spanish-Italian initiative that calls for an international peace conference to end the Middle East conflict.

    The initiative called for an immediate cessation of all forms of violence at both sides and an exchange of prisoners. It also urged an international peace conference to be held.

    "The peace process was stalled, and it, of course, needs an international movement to revive it again," said Abu Rudeineh.

    Last Wednesday morning, 18 Palestinian civilians were killed in an Israeli artillery barrage in a northern Gaza town and rockets fired from Gaza killed one woman and wounded several other residents of an Israeli border town on Wednesday.