BRUSSELS (EJP)--- The European Union does not intend to put Hezbollah on its list of terrorist organisations for the time being, Finnish foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja, said Tuesday.

Responding a question from a journalist at a press conference following the emergency meeting of the EU on the Mideast crisis, the EU Council president said :"Given the sensitive situation, I don’t think this is something we will be dealing with it now. »

He however didn’t exclude such a possibility. «This could happen later when we will see the outcome of a future political agreement,» the Finnish minister added.

His remarks were in response to a letter signed by 213 members of the United States Congress sent to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana asking that the EU add Hezbollah to its terrorist list.

Hezbollah, which means Party of Allah in Arabic, was founded in 1982. Led by its secretary general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah is sponsored by Syria and Iran. It has been linked to scores of attacks on Israelis and Americans, including rocket attacks on Israeli towns, the 1983 bombing that killed 241 U.S. soldiers and 58 French soldiers in Beirut and the 1994 attack that killed 85 at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The US, Canada and Israel classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. Britain, Holland and Australia are designating the Hezbollah External Security organisation as terrorist. Imad Mugniyeh, a senior Hezbollah intelligence officer, is on the EU terror list but not the group itself.

Earlier this week, an EU official told EJP that any decision to add Hezbollah to the European Union’s list of terror organisations needs unanimity among the 25 EU members states.

Solana recently stated that there was no sufficient data tying Hezbollah to terrorist activities.

During the last years there had been several such demands. “But the unanimity of the 25 member states has never been reached, Christina Gallach, Solana’s spokeswoman, told EJP.