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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L), French President Nicolas Sarkozy (C) and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the Elysée presidential palace in Paris.
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PARIS (EJP)---Declaring their commitment to peace, Israeli and Palestin,ian leaders called on Sunday for Europe to play a bigger role in the Middle East peace process.
"Never had the two sides been so close to an accord," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud olmert said after talks in Paris with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, just before the opening of a summit to launch the new French-initiated Mediterranean Union in the presence of more than 40 heads of state from the European Union and non-European Mediterranean states.
Olmert, who clings to office in the face of new corruption allegations, told reporters problems still had to be overcome between the Israelis and Palestinians and that it was time to make tough decisions.
"It seems to me that we have never been as close to the possibility of reaching an accord as we are today," he said at a press conference, standing along with Abbas and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"It seems that we have reached the time when the Palestinian authorities and the Israelis have to take serious and important decisions that will finally take us to where we have never been before," Olmert added, without giving further details described his talks with Abbas as "very serious."
President Sarkozy described Sunday's Mediterranean summit as an historic event because it gathered almost all the Arab heads of state along with the Israeli Prime Minister.
Sarkozy told reporters that obviously did not mean all the problems in the Middle East were resolved. But the gathering mirrored the objectives of the new Mediterranean partnership - in which members could learn to like each other rather than to make war.
Sarkozy said that the Mideast peace processs will be one of his priorities during France's six-month term as president of the European Union, which began this month.
At the opening of the summit, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called for Israelis and Palestinians to step up their efforts to reach a peace deal.
"I call on (Palestinian) president Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), and (Israeli)
Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert, to pursue the path of negotiations to bring
about total and global peace, to create an independent Palestinian state and
open a new page in the Middle Eastern region," Mubarak said.
