Schroeder urges end to Middle East tensions

Schroeder, left, wants to make a contribution toward peace

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder urged Israel and the Palestinians on Tuesday to carry out an agreement reached two weeks ago to ease tensions in the Middle East.

Schroeder said before talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak that the agreement, reached during a U.S.-sponsored peace summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, was vital if peace talks were to resume.

"It is important that Sharm el-Sheikh is respected and implemented as a whole and by all sides. Only the implementation leads to the possibility to continue the peace process," Schroeder told reporters.

"We as Germans and Europeans want to make a contribution toward that. We work for peace with a warm heart."

At least 149 people, most of them Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, have been killed since clashes flared between Palestinians and Israeli security forces on September 28.

Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat reached the agreement to end the violence at the Sharm el-Sheikh summit with U.S. President Bill Clinton in mid-October, but fighting raged on.

Schroeder is on a regional tour that had already taken him to Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

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