The European Union will seek this week to bring Middle Eastern countries into a broad anti-terrorist alliance in the wake of the attacks on the US by dangling the prospect of a new geo-strategic deal, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said.
In an interview with Le Figaro to be published on Monday as a four-member EU delegation leaves on a mission to the Middle East, Michel said the officials would seek to reassure host countries that an alliance would be anti-terrorist, but not anti-Islam.
Michel said the delegation would give certain countries "a chance to make a new strategic choice".
"If the [anti-terrorist] coalition is big enough and includes representatives of all the great civilizations, I really think that it can be efficient," said the minister, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency and who will lead the mission.
"We will explain the position of the European Union, tell our Arab friends on the ground that there is no amalgam possible: it is a coalition against terrorism, against fanatics, but not against Islam."
The EU campaign, which has strong US support, will include stops in six Middle Eastern countries with the aim of cobbling together broad support in the region.
Its four to five-day mission, approved at a special EU summit Friday called in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, will start off in Islamabad -- currently in the spotlight due to it close connections to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban regime.
In the wake of the attacks the United States has called for an international coalition against terrorism and threatened reprisals against Afghanistan, which it suspects of harboring key suspect Osama bin Laden.
As well as Michel, the delegation, which is also going to Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, includes the EU's top foreign policy representative Javier Solana and the EU's External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten and Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, whose country takes over the EU presidency next year.
"I am not expecting miracles, but this journey is politically highly charged," Michel said. "It is as if they have knocked over the geo-strategic house of cards."
Asked about EU efforts to help the Middle East process, Michel said that the European Union is "involved in resolving the conflict.
"When it comes to influencing the positions of [Palestine leader] Yasser Arafat [the US Secretary of State Colin] Powell thinks really that we are the best placed," Michel said -- PARIS (AFP)
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