De Villepin said the wall would not create an atmosphere of trust between Israelis and Palestinians

GAZA City, December 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The European Union is mulling the possibility of bringing Israel's West Bank separation wall to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said Wednesday, December 3.

He was speaking at the conclusion of a two-day E.U.-Mediterranean Partnership summit in the Italian city of Naples, which ended with a stern warning to Israel over its controversial barrier.

De Villepin said the continued Israeli building of the wall would not create an atmosphere of trust between the Palestinians and Israelis, reported the Palestinian International Press Center.

"The European countries are discussing the issue [of the wall] along with the possibility to launch a new European peace initiative under the auspices of United Nations. However, they are examining the way to do that," remarked France’s top diplomat.

The Palestinian Authority along with several Arab states recently decided lodge a complain with the ICJ against the Israeli wall.

The 750km-barrier, dismissed by Palestinians as the apartheid wall, is conceived by international bodies as an impediment to establishing a viable and contiguous Palestinian state, living side by side with Israel.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan had criticized the wall as a setback for the peace process and a "deeply counterproductive act" in violation of international law.

The wall will eventually snake some 900 kilometers (540 miles) along the West Bank and leave even larger swathes of Palestinian territory on the Israeli side.

The first phase of the barrier was completed in July 2003 in the northern West Bank.

The defiant Israeli government of Ariel Sharon approved last month a new 100-million-dollar section of the controversial barrier.

Stern Warning   

In a related development, the E.U.-Mediterranean summit delivered a stern warning to Israel that the controversial wall "must not invade" Palestinian territories, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The summiteers expressed "strong concerns" about the route marked out by Israel for the controversial barrier.

The wall's envisaged departure from the Green Line which is expected to delineate the border between the Palestinian territory and Israel "could prejudge future negotiations and make the two-state solution physically impossible to implement", said the summit's final document, which was circulated by the Italian presidency.

While Israel's "fundamental" security needs were deemed obvious, "the route of the wall must not invade Palestinian territory," Foreign Minister Franco Frattini of E.U. president Italy told a final news conference.

"We have repeated that frankly and many times to our Israeli friends," added Frattini, whose country is regarded as Israel’s closest friend within the E.U.

Deeply Concerned

The final communiqué further said that the ministers were "deeply concerned" by the situation in the Middle East and noted the "insufficient progress" made by the parties, urging them to "seize the opportunity" offered by the roadmap.

It said that decisive steps should be taken to reverse "the sharply deteriorating humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza.

"Ministers recognized that there is no alternative to a swift and full implementation, in good faith by the two sides, of the roadmap."

The deadlocked Middle East peace process dominated the two days of discussions in the southern Italian port city which drew together the 25 current and future E.U. members and the 12 states in the Mediterranean Partnership. Libya participated as an observer.

A recent E.U. poll showed that almost 60 per cent of Europeans believe Israel poses the biggest threat to world peace, just ahead of North Korea, Iran and the U.S.