EU:EUROPEAN Union foreign ministers agreed yesterday to strengthen ties with Israel, but urged it to make progress on Middle East peace and criticised it for building more settlements in the occupied territories.
"The European Union is determined to develop a closer partnership with Israel," the ministers agreed in Luxembourg before meeting Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni.
Closer links have been opposed by Arab states and the Palestinian Authority particularly because of Israel's settlement programme in the occupied territories.
The EU text said the bloc wanted gradually to strengthen co-operation in areas such as social policy, give the hi-tech Israeli economy better access to the EU market and co-operate more closely on regulatory issues.
Israel has a seven-year-old "association agreement" with the EU setting out a schedule of political meetings, regulating trade ties and areas of co-operation including internal security.
Earlier the foreign ministers clashed over whether to offer Macedonia the prospect of opening membership talks this year, with Greece leading opposition to its neighbour's hopes, diplomats said.
In a statement, ministers regretted "violent incidents and other serious shortcomings" in the conduct of a June 1st general election and urged the government to investigate and act on all reported serious irregularities.
They reaffirmed their commitment to Skopje's "European perspective" but did not mention the start of negotiations with the Balkan candidate country or the conduct of the partial re-run of the election on Sunday.
International monitors said yesterday the re-run was free of violence, but tensions and intimidation meant it still did not meet some key European standards.
Diplomats said a clash erupted behind closed doors over a proposal by the Slovenian presidency that this week's EU summit should declare Macedonia can still start accession talks this year if it meets a series of benchmarks.
Greece, which has a long-running dispute with Skopje over the country's name, denounced the state of democracy in the former Yugoslav republic and said there could be no question of opening negotiations at this time.
The 27 EU leaders will have to thrash out the issue at the summit on Thursday and Friday after ministers failed to agree on consensus wording for the summit statement, diplomats said.
And ministers postponed a decision on whether to lift sanctions on Cuba, also leaving the decision for the summit.
The Czech Republic has led resistance to such a move, but signalled a compromise may be possible later this week by saying it was open to lifting sanctions under certain conditions. The measures were imposed after a crackdown on dissent in 2003.
They were formally suspended in 2005 but abolition would be seen as EU encouragement for reforms by Cuban president Raul Castro, who took over after the February 24th retirement of his brother Fidel. Changes include new rules allowing Cubans to buy cell phones and an increase in public debate.
Ministers did not agree to launch a new round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.
"No decision has been taken today," Mr Solana told a news conference after a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
British prime minister Gordon Brown said earlier that Europe would take further sanctions against Iran, and spoke of immediate action to freeze the overseas assets of the biggest bank in Iran, the Bank Melli. - (Reuters)