NABLUS, West Bank, April 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies)- Israel blocked a high-level European mediation attempt, Thursday, April 4, that came after a senior European diplomat said U.S. mediation efforts had failed, and that Washington should step aside as primary peacemaker, news agencies reported.

Raanan Gissin, an adviser to hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, who were arriving in the region Thursday, would not be permitted to meet with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat who has been under Israeli siege in his Ramallah headquarters without access to food, water or electricity for a week.

"We are going to insist to all the parties concerned on the necessity for an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal," Pique, whose country holds the E.U. presidency, told Spanish radio before leaving for the region.

The state broadcaster said the two would meet Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer in Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told CNN in Jerusalem Thursday that no Palestinian officials would meet with Pique and Solana if the envoys were blocked from meeting with Arafat.

"If they do not meet with Arafat, no Palestinian official will meet with them," he said.

E.U. leaders gave the green light for the mission at an emergency meeting in Luxembourg late Wednesday after Romano Prodi, head of the E.U.'s Executive Commission, urged Washington to move aside as the main peacemaker and make room for a broad alliance of nations — including the E.U., the Russians and moderate Arab nations — to mediate a comprehensive peace deal for the region.

"It is clear (American) mediation efforts have failed and we need new mediation" to avoid an all-out regional war, Prodi said Wednesday.

The Israeli daily newspaper, Ha’aretz, reported Thursday that in a recent telephone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Collin Powell, Sharon also refused to allow U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni to continue his attempts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians. An official close to the diplomatic efforts, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the report.

The E.U. will also step up diplomatic contacts with Russia, Arab nations and the United States, Pique said. The U.S. Secretary of State is to meet with E.U. officials in Madrid next week.

Asked about possible trade sanctions, Prodi said the trade agreement with Israel was an instrument of dialogue, not of blackmail.

According to the BBC, the E.U. - as the Palestinian Authority's main financial backer and a key Israeli trading partner - is unwilling to turn its economic clout into political influence.

Speaking after the Luxembourg meeting, the British minister Peter Hain said the conflict was the most dangerous in the world.

"We have got to work at the grinding business of diplomacy because nothing else is working," he said.

The E.U. meeting in Luxembourg overnight Wednesday, April 3, aimed to push for the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1402, which calls for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian cities it has occupied.

The intensification of the Israeli violence has triggered fallout in Europe where a wave of street demonstrations have been staged in the different capitals voicing support for the Palestinians.

This week, Sharon suggested the Europeans take Arafat into exile — something the Europeans have angrily rejected. The E.U. ministers want Israel to lift the siege of Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah.

Israel launched a ferocious military campaign against Palestinians last Friday, March 29, reoccupying almost all of the Palestinian territories and ruthlessly killing dozens of unarmed civilians as well as abducting hundreds.

The United States has dominated the so-called peace process for many years and has stymied European aspirations for a peace role. U.S. President George W. Bush has backed Israel's military operation, calling it “self-defense”.