U.S. Urged to Step Down in Mideast

LUXEMBOURG - Declaring American mediation in the Middle East a failure, the EU executive urged the United States on Wednesday to stand down as primary peacemaker and let a broad alliance of nations mediate a cease-fire and a durable Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

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The call came as foreign ministers from the European Union (news - web sites) were gathering for an urgent session here about the violence in the Middle East, where Israel has launched a large-scale assault in the West Bank after a string of Palestinian suicide bombings.

"It is clear (American) mediation efforts have failed and we need new mediation" before the Israeli-Palestinian conflict balloons into an all-out regional war, European Commission (news - web sites) President Romano Prodi told reporters in Brussels.

Prodi said the ministers' meeting should endorse a call for new negotiations, involving not only the United States, but also the European Union, the United Nations (news - web sites), Russia, moderate Arab states, Israel and the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites).