Solana says Palestinian state should be established along '67 lines

Ramallah - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Monday that the future Palestinian state should be established along the 1967 borders. He said in Ramallah after ending a day of meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad that the sooner a Palestinian state is established the better.

"Our dream is to have a Palestinian state and the sooner the better," he said.

This state, he said, "will be constructed on territory marked by the borders of 1967," the date Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"It may be necessary to swap some territory, but not to disturb the nature and continuity of the territory," he added.

Solana expressed support for a plan Fayyad had put forth last month which foresees the establishment of the foundations of a fully fledged state within two years.

He said, however, that the details and implementation of this plan should be concluded in negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel, which he hoped will resume soon following the process started in New York in September when Abbas had his first meeting with Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu in the presence of US President Barack Obama.

Solana said he supports efforts by Abbas to reunite the Palestinian people following their split after the Islamist Hamas movement took over control of the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to Abbas in June 2007.

He said that the EU supports Abbas' definition of government once a unity rule is established, which he said "can be acceptable by everybody in the international community."

Abbas, leader of the Fatah Party, said he wants a Palestinian government that accepts his moderate programme, which calls for a peace settlement with Israel only through negotiations.

The United States has already said that it will not recognize a Palestinian government that does not accept conditions of the so- called Quartet of the US, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations.

These include recognition of Israel and previously signed agreements and renouncing all forms of violence. Hamas does not accept the conditions.

Abbas has traveled to Cairo following his meeting with Solana to follow up on Egyptian efforts to reconcile Hamas and Fatah

Solana also said that the EU will support presence of a force on the ground in the Palestinian territory other than the EU Police coordinating Office for Palestinian Police Support (EUPOL COPPs), which currently helps in training the police force.

"We cannot have a democratic state without the presence of a police force and the rule of law," he said.