Powell seeks EU help on Mideast

Powell: "I am ... putting together a consensus ...."

MADRID, Spain -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is seeking the help of officials from the EU, Russia and United Nations to help restart Middle East peace moves.

He told reporters aboard his plane from Egypt to Spain, which currently holds the EU presidency, that he wanted to speed up moves sketched out in a blueprint for peace under the leadership of former U.S. Senator George Mitchell.

Powell is in Madrid on Wednesday to meet EU foreign and security chief Javier Solana and Josep Pique, Spain's foreign minister.

He will also meet Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Powell's Europe, Middle East and Africa shuttle mission was dealt a blow on Tuesday with the deaths of 13 Israeli soldiers, swiftly followed on Wednesday by the deaths in what Israeli police called a suicide bombing of at least eight Israelis in a bus at Haifa. (Full story)

But the secretary of state said in Cairo that he still planned to see Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon this week.

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Powell made clear Israel's partial pullout from Palestinian towns in the West Bank was not enough, but indicated the U.S. -- unlike the EU -- was not considering sanctions.

In the past, Israel and the U.S. have long rejected an EU role in peace making.

Last week, Sharon refused to see a high-level EU delegation and also barred it from meeting Arafat at his Ramallah headquarters currently besieged by Israeli troops.

U.S. President George W. Bush has called for Israel to pull out "without delay" from all West Bank towns and refugee camps seized in a 12-day offensive that Israel says is aimed at rooting out terrorists.

Israeli troops withdrew from two towns, Tulkarem and Qalqilya, on Tuesday. U.S. officials have said further withdrawals must take place.

"We've made it clear, however, that we think it would be best for them to withdraw now... We're expecting other withdrawals to take place, the sooner the better," Powell told Reuters late on Tuesday.

In a further sign of heightened U.S. commitment to ending the crisis, Powell reiterated his country's readiness to send cease-fire monitors to the region.

"We're talking about some small numbers of people that we would draw perhaps from our diplomatic presence there, or send in some other individuals from state department or other government agencies," he told Reuters.

"They would not be an interpositional force trying to keep people from shooting at each other." he added.

Powell said he had not set an end date for his mission that culminates in talks in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"I haven't set a departure date yet. I'm prepared to stay for some while," he added.

Powell said it was necessary to speed up the Mitchell plan, which envisaged a cooling-off period and then a period of confidence-building measures paving the way for political negotiations.

"We're going to have to act a lot quicker because people are looking for... political negotiations and not just a cease-fire," Powell said.

"That is not inconsistent with Mitchell. I just think it accelerates what we've been thinking about."

Powell is expected to hold four days of talks after arriving in Jerusalem on Thursday, shuttling between Sharon and Arafat.

Powell said he had received pledges of support from the Arab leaders he had met -- but also expressions of anger, which he noted had mounted across the Arab world after the Israeli incursion began.

"I wasn't stunned by anything I heard, but I heard it in spades from everybody," he told reporters when asked if he was surprised by the level of Arab anger.

In the background of the Madrid meeting, Germany was drafting an ambitious blueprint for peace designed to lead to peaceful coexistence not only of Israel and the Palestinians but also with its other neighbours.

The plan will be formally presented to a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg next Monday.