As Israel continues its assault, the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations sit down to debate ways to get Israel to pull its troops from all Palestinian territories quickly and unconditionally.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell---touring North Africa, the Middle East and Europe at a time of the worst Israeli-Palestinian fighting in decades---said in Cairo Tuesday he planned to see Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this week.
He also offered US observers to monitor a truce he hoped to broker.
Powell meets Wednesday with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, EU foreign and security chief Javier Solana and Josep Pique, Spain's foreign minister whose country holds the EU presidency.
Those participants are the sort of broad-based international alliance the EU wants to drive peace efforts, arguing Washington has lost its clout as peace broker as shown by the Palestinian suicide bombings that led to the Israeli offensive on March 29.
In the past, Israel and the United States have long rejected an EU role in peace making.
Last week, Sharon refused to see a high-level EU delegation and also barred it from meeting with Arafat at his Ramallah headquarters that is besieged by Israeli troops.
In the background of the Madrid meeting, Germany was drafting an ambitious blueprint for peace designed to lead to peaceful coexistence not only of Israel and the Palestinians but also with its other neighbors.
The plan will be formally presented to a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg next Monday.
It foresees a cease-fire and withdrawal of Israeli troops, followed by an early declaration of a Palestinian state, an end to Jewish settlements in Palestinian areas, phased talks on such tricky issues such as Israel's borders and the status of Jerusalem, the German government said.
Also, it provides for international peacekeepers patrolling a buffer zone between Israel and the Palestinian areas.
The plan combines elements of US and Saudi proposals but notably ``departs from the principle of small steps and looks much more toward the final status,'' Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's office said.
As Israel keeps up its assault, the EU fears for a previously scheduled April 22-23 meeting of EU foreign ministers and their opposites from Israel and its Arab neighbors in Valencia, Spain.
Several Arab nations have said they plan to boycott the annual EU-Mediterranean event to protest Israel's offensive.
The meeting is part of a long-term EU effort to provide billions of dollars in aid to Israel and its neighbors to underpin the peace process, that now is in tatters.
(China Daily April 10, 2002)
