Israel facing possible EU sanctions

VENICE, Italy -- Israel faces possible European Union sanctions unless it complies with international demands for it to call a ceasefire of its actions against Palestinians.

Josep Pique, the foreign minister of Spain, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said on Sunday the EU is to discuss introducing possible sanctions.

"We discussed the possibility (of sanctions) at the last general council in Luxembourg," Pique told Reuters.

"It's a possible scenario but we have to discuss it among the 15 members and have a common position.

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"Some countries are in favour of introducing sanctions very, very soon, others are more reluctant. So we have to discuss it."

Pique also said the 15-member EU would weigh sanctions against the Palestinian authority "if it makes less than 100 percent effort to fight terrorism" against Israel.

"Right now we have to focus our attention on the immediate ceasefire and on the immediate redeployment of the Israeli army from the territories and also on the cessation of terrorist attacks by the Palestinians against Israeli citizens," he said.

Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, also speaking on Sunday, said the EU could rethink trade ties with Israel.

UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also called an Israeli withdrawal.

"The only way to end that (violence) is not by the continuation of this invasion, still less by the continuation of the appalling terrorism, but by negotiation," Straw told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend.

Pique and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana travelled to the Middle East last week to press for a ceasefire.

But the effort ended in failure on after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon denied them permission to meeting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Michel described the Israeli decision to bar the EU envoys from meeting Arafat "an insult."

Michel, who was speaking on Belgian television channel VRT, said one option would be to re-examine an association treaty with Israel which gives the Jewish state preferential trade terms with the EU.

Both the United Nations and U.S. President George W. Bush have called for an Israeli withdrawal from West Bank cities.

In a telephone conversation with Bush on Saturday, Sharon had agreed to wrap up the offensive "as expeditiously as possible," a senior Bush administration official said.

That followed a news conference in which Bush said Israel should halt its incursions into six Palestinian cities and "withdraw without delay."