based on information from www.EUobserver.com

An international conference on the latest Middle East crisis begins in Rome today. It is organized by the Europeans as a “Lebanon Contact Group.” The UN Secretary-General participates but is not one of the organizers.

The meeting of representatives of 18 countries and international organizations, includes US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Lebanon’s prime minister Fouad Siniora.

Syria and Iran have not been invited to the talks and divisions between some EU countries pushing for an immediate ceasefire and US will emerge. It is clear that without Syria and Iran it is not possible to find a solution to the Lebanon crisis (PJ).

A key debate will be calls from the UN and some EU countries for an international peace-keeping force to police the southern Lebanon.

UN deaths raise tensions at Middle East crisis summit:

The international conference on the Middle East crisis begins in Rome today and will be overshadowed by Israel’s killing of four UN peacekeepers yesterday.

The Unifil observer mission casualties - including one Austrian and one Finnish citizen - have been described by the UN Secretary General as deliberate.

Finnish president Tarja Halonen, Helsinki is currently holding the EU presidency, has demanded an explanation of how the deaths occurred.

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice will propose a 10,000 strong international peacekeeping force to police the Israeli-Lebanese border at the crisis summit.

“I cannot imagine the force without any Europeans. It is fundamental that some European countries will participate,” EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.

France and Turkey are emerging as the lead nations for a potentially risky peace-keeping operation, under UN auspices.

“Our citizens simply do not understand why the EU does not react on a political level taking into consideration the drama which is unfolding. I therefore ask you to stage a European initiative,” French president Jacques Chirac wrote in a letter to a Solana.

In Germany, a debate has emerged on possible German participation in any new international force, with social democrat and Green politicians arguing their country’s WW2 past would make a military role in the Middle East a bad idea.

NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told FT Europe in an interview, “This is definitely not the moment to start any form of speculation about any NATO role in a stabilization force.”

But Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pushing for a NATO role. “Just as NATO is involved in the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan, it must do the same here.”

Former German foreign minister Joschka Fischer publicly backed Israel in a comment in Sueddeutsche Zeitung, saying Hezbollah rockets on Haifa had made the conflict “existential” for the Jewish state.

But aid commissioner Louis Michel accused Israel of breaking international humanitarian law, saying “the right of self-defence does not allow Israel to level Beirut and its critical infrastructure to the ground in the name of fighting Hezbollah.”

The Telegraph reports that Britain has been used as a staging post for shipments of bombs from the US to Israel.

The Israelis have asked for smart bombs from Washington to attack bunkers and two chartered Airbus A310 cargo planes filled with GBU 28 laser-guided bombs refuelled in Prestwick airport.

US NGO Human Rights Watch is also accusing Israel of using prohibited cluster bombs in its assault on the Lebanon.