Arab walkout at EU summit

French anti-globalisation leader Joseph Bove protests against Israel's West Bank offensive ahead of the Valencia summit

VALENCIA, Spain (CNN) -- Arab foreign ministers walked out of the first working session of a summit meeting in Valencia between European and Mediterranean countries in protest at Israeli military action in the Palestinian territories.

The walkout came when Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Rabbi Michael Melchoir, was about to deliver his prepared remarks.

Reacting to the development, Chris Patten, the European Union external affairs commissioner, told CNN, "I think that's a pity. I think it would have been better if they could have heard what he had to say, but I think it demonstrates the strength of their feelings about the present situation."

Miquel Nadal, a Spanish Foreign Ministry official, sought to play down the walkout.

However, the Middle East conflict has overshadowed the start of a summit, which is due to conclude at noon on Tuesday. Syria and Lebanon already dropped out because of Israel's participation.

After Syria and Lebanon said they would not attend, the Israelis announced that Foreign Minister Shimon Peres would arrive early on Tuesday due to what his staff described as "technical problems" with his plane.

Earlier in the day, in an impromptu exchange during the opening session, Tunisia's Foreign Minister, Habib Ben Yahia -- serving as spokesman for the Arab nations in Valencia-- urged the summit to take on a peace-making role because of the "catastrophic" situation in the Middle East, which he blamed on Israeli army violence.

That brought an immediate retort from Israel's Melchoir, who said: "The Palestinian people are not our enemy. Only terrorism is our enemy."

Melchoir, filling in for Peres, said the Valencia summit should not be about which side has suffered most. The Palestinians, he said, should have peace, secure borders and "dignity" because if not, the Israelis would also not enjoy peace, secure borders and dignity.

The summit was planned for the foreign ministers of the European Union's 15 nations to meet their counterparts from 12 nations that border the Mediterranean Sea. However, officials at the meeting told CNN that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has diverted attention from the planned agenda.

Nabil Sha'ath, the Palestinian Authority's minister of planning and delegation head, told CNN he was not planning to have a bilateral meeting with Israel's Peres during the summit.

But Sha'ath said that if the two do meet during the summit, he would shake the hand of Peres, whom he described as "an old friend" who has worked hard for peace. Peres shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Palestinian Authority president Yasser Arafat and slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Sha'ath said Peres has been hamstrung by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government, "which is still invading and occupying all of the West Bank."

The Fifth Euro-Mediterranean Summit was to have been the first meeting of Israel and Arab nations since the Israeli offensive into the West Bank territories that started March 29. Israel said the action was in response to Palestinian suicide bombers who killed scores of Israelis.

In recent days, Israel has pulled back from most of the towns it occupied, although it maintains a tight cordon around Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah and around the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, where Israel says Palestinian fighters are holed up.

The summit meeting is part of an ongoing European Union initiative to build political and economic stability with its Mediterranean neighbours.

The European Union is a major trading partner with Israel and a major donor of aid to the Palestinian Authority and various Arab nations.

On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar served as a witness for the signing, at the summit, of an economic aid agreement between the European Union and Algeria. The Algerian president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, also attended. Spain holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

A similar agreement has been negotiated between the EU and Lebanon but it will not be signed in Valencia because of Lebanon's absence.