BRUSSELS, Feb 4 (AFP) - European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner will ask Israel during a Middle East visit next week to match improvements in security with more freedom of movement for Palestinians, the commission said Friday.
Her trip comes on the eve of Tuesday's Sharm el-Sheikh summit on the Red Sea bringing together Israel, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians to resume the peace process disrupted by four years of intifada.
She kicks off Monday in Cairo with talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak followed the same day by meetings in Israel and the Palestinian territories with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas.
Ferrero-Waldner "will urge Israel to match improvements in security with new measures to improve freedom of movement for Palestinian people and goods, without which economic revival in the territories will not be possible," said a European Commission statement.
The European Union is involved in the peace process as a member of the "quartet" together with the United States, the United Nations and Russia, who have been seeking a Middle East settlement based on the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
Ferrero-Waldner Friday praised latest initiatives by Israel and the Palestinians to breathe new life into the peace process.
"Further bold actions are necessary on both sides, but a promising start has been made," she said in the commission statement.
"During my visit I will be discussing the conditions under which the (EU) Commission can provide support for Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza, and how, through financial assistance and other means, we can continue to promote the reforms so essential to building a Palestinian state with good standards of governance and respect of the rule of law."
In 2004, 250 million euros were made available from the European Union budget for the Palestinian territories.
The EU has welcomed Israeli plans to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, but sees this only as a first step to a global settlement of the conflict, with two states living peacefully side by side.
As far as the Palestinians are concerned, the European Union Commission, the EU's executive body, is urging modernisation of the Palestinian judiciary, greater financial transparency and additional security measures.
And in Israel, Ferrero-Waldner will stress that the EU considers it indispensible that Israeli should, as quickly as possible, provide Palestinians with concrete manifestations of the new dynamism in the Middle East.
The emergence of a new Palestinian leadership after the death of Yasser Arafat, begun with the election of President Mahmud Abbas in January 9 elections, and the prospect of an Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip has stirred hope of a breakthrough after more than four years of violence.
Israelis and Palestinians were expected to draw a line under four years of violence at next week's landmark Middle East summit Sharm el-Sheikh,with a formal declaration of an end to violence.
02/04/2005 17:21 GMT - AFP