EU warns Israel aid depends on political dialogue

1.00pm

BRUSSELS - European Union aid to Israel will depend on better co-operation from the Jewish state, the bloc's Dutch presidency said on Monday, but he failed to condemn it over a court finding that it was building a security barrier illegally.

European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels said merely that an Advisory Opinion issued by the International Court of Justice last week needed to be "studied carefully".

However, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, hinted at possible consequences if Israel did not co-operate more closely.

"It takes two to tango, and Sharon has to be prepared to tango a bit with the European Union," Bot told a news conference, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The court condemned Israel's West Bank barrier as illegal, saying it imposed hardship on thousands of Palestinians and must be torn down.

It said in a non-binding ruling hailed by Palestinians and rejected by Israel that the barrier violated international humanitarian law. It called on the UN Security Council and General Assembly to stop the barrier's construction.

"We said ... that our aid and support for Israel through different instruments has to go hand in hand with the political dialogue," Bot said.

"And if Israel is not prepared to engage in dialogue in a satisfactory way with the European Union, then obviously the European Union must also consider possible consequences of that, but I shall say nothing about those consequences for the moment because we have not yet got down to the heart of the matter."

But he ruled out any obstacle to Israel signing an agreement on Tuesday on taking part in Galileo, the new multi-billion dollar satellite navigation system being developed by the EU.

"I think we have to draw a distinction between ... the security barrier and Galileo," Bot said. "Signature was planned a long time ago and therefore I think it would be difficult to cancel the signature."

Galileo, a European version of the existing US Global Positioning System, will become operational in 2008.

Galileo's planned system of 27 satellites has a range of potential uses from guiding cars and ships to precision positioning in engineering projects.

- REUTERS