Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign and security policy chief, will represent the European Union at next Monday's emergency Middle East summit, a European source said Saturday.
Solana was invited to the summit at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the source said.
Solana, a former NATO secretary general and before that Spanish foreign minister, will leave for Egypt on Sunday afternoon.
The Palestinian Authority insisted Saturday that the French EU presidency sit in on the summit, together with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and a representative from Russia.
French President Jacques Chirac, hosting an EU summit in Biarritz, said earlier Saturday that the European Union stood ready to participate in a Middle East emergency summit, but was not asking to do so.
EU leaders issued a declaration Friday calling for an urgent Israeli-Palestinican summit and a halt to two weeks of bloodshed in the Jewish state and occupied territories.
They also instructed Solana, who was in the Middle East earlier in the week, to go back to the region to continue peace efforts in parallel with Annan's shuttle diplomacy -- BIARRITZ, France (AFP)
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