France and Spain were seeking a new Mideast peace initiative in a bid to halt the deteriorating security situation in the region, the two countries' leaders told media here on Thursday.

"All this violence must end," Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told a press conference after talks with French President Jacques Chirac, who was in the northern Spanish town of Gerona for a Franco-Spanish summit.

"We want to launch a joint initiative on the Middle East situation and push it through at the European Union (EU) level, preferably with Germany and Britain," the Spanish premier said.

The plan, which also enlisted support from Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, proposes a ceasefire, an exchange of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners, a Palestinian "government of national unity" and an international peace conference.

Chirac said France, Italy and Spain shared the same views on the Middle East and the three countries had to take joint actions. The two leaders and Prodi agreed to submit their proposals to an EU summit in mid-December.

Chirac said the EU had to act in the face of "the increasingly dramatic situation in the Middle East and in Palestine in particular."

This initiative was welcomed by Palestinian National Authority (PNA) spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina, who told media that "We salute the idea of organizing an international peace conference on the Middle East, especially as the road map makes provision for holding such a conference."

However, an Israeli official, who declined to be named, struck a dubious note, saying the initiative "does not exist."

"Mr. Zapatero's statements are different from those of French President Jacques Chirac," the official said, adding that Israel was "appalled by such naivety" from the Spanish premier.

"We will certainly see if he (Zapatero) manages to convince the Palestinians to stop rocket fire on Israel," he said, one day after an attack killed a 57-year-old mother.

Referring to a prisoner swap, the official said the Egyptians had been working on an initiative since June when an Israeli soldier was snatched by Palestinian militants, and asked why Zapatero had not come forward sooner.

Meanwhile, the European parliament on Thursday called on member states to send international military observers into the Gaza Strip and urged Israel to end its military actions there immediately.

In a resolution adopted by an overwhelming majority, the EU deputies reiterated an earlier suggestion of sending a multinational force into the Palestinian territories, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, based on the example of a mission operating in Lebanon.

Since the Israeli soldier was captured in June by armed Palestinians, Israel has carried out a string of military operations in the Gaza Strip, the area from which it withdrew in 2005 after 38-years of occupation.

Source: Xinhua