Military

DATE=9/6/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=E-U / ABBAS / HAMAS (L-O)

NUMBER=2-307221

BYLINE=SABINA CASTELFRANCO

DATELINE=ROME

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: European Union foreign ministers meeting in Italy have expressed alarm at the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. They say they fear it could be a severe setback to the Middle East peace process. At the same time the ministers agreed to blacklist the political wing of Hamas. Sabina Castelfranco reports from Rome.

TEXT: Meeting in the Italian resort of Lake Garda, the E-U foreign ministers said there is a real risk of dangerous instability in the Palestinian leadership. Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the 15-nation bloc was extremely worried about how this would affect the already-endangered Middle East peace process.

Mr. Abbas submitted his resignation on Saturday following a bitter power struggle with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat over control of the Palestinian security services.

The E-U's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said the Middle East peace process is now at a critical stage and everything possible should be done to try to salvage it.

European commission president Romano Prodi warned that the Abbas resignation was a backward step, a clear demonstration that the more moderate side in the Palestinian leadership had lost.

U-S Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, also in Italy, said Mr. Abbas's departure would cause a delay in the peace process. He added, however, that it would not discourage President Bush's efforts to get Israelis and Palestinians around the conference table.

The E-U, the U-S, the U-N and Russia make up the "quartet" of mediators in the Middle East peace process. Italy, as rotating president of the E-U, wants to bring the four parties together for a meeting later this month to discuss the stalled peace process.

In a separate development, the European Union ministers agreed Saturday to outlaw the Palestinian political wing of Hamas, describing it as a terrorist organization. Some E-U members, including Britain, had pushed for the decision after Hamas claimed responsibility for a recent suicide bombing in Jerusalem which effectively ended a truce declared by Palestinian militant groups.

The blacklisting of the Hamas political wing is a first step toward all E-U states freezing Hamas assets and possibly prosecuting its activists. (Signed)

NEB/SC/DW/RH