EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten condemned on Thursday the use of force during bloody clashes in Israel and the Palestinian territories that have left 73 dead, his spokesman said Thursday.
"Commissioner Patten expressed his horror and disappointment at the renewed violence in Israel and the occupied territories," said Gunnar Wiegand.
Patten "deplored the indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force as well as the acts of provocation in the current spiral of violence," he added.
He spoke to reporters after Patten held talks here with the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Kuwait, as well as the Palestinian Authority delegate and the top Arab League representative in Brussels.
Wiegand added that Patten joined the EU presidency, held by France, in expressing the EU's readiness to contribute to the work of an international inquiry commission into what caused the outbreak of seven days of violence.
"The first step to the re-establishment of security and confidence is to find out why it broke down," said Wiegand.
He added that the European Commission hoped that Thursday's meeting in the Egyptian town of Sharm-el-Sheikh would contribute to restoring calm and that all parties in the conflict would soon find it possible to meet again.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held talks there earlier Thursday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
On Tuesday, the European Union accused Israel of aggravating the violence in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and of undermining the Middle East peace process, by resorting to "the disproportionate use of force" against Palestinians.
The EU, together with its 15 member states, is a major source of development aid to the aspiring Palestinian state -- BRUSSELS (AFP)
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