The European Union has agreed to keep monitors stationed at Gaza's border crossing with Egypt for another six months, officials said on Tuesday.
Some 70 European monitors have been overseeing the Rafah crossing under a 12-month agreement, which took effect at the end of November 2005 and was aimed at opening up Gaza after Israel withdrew following 38 years of occupation. EU foreign ministers approved the six-month extension of the monitoring mission to May 24, 2007 at a regular meeting in Brussels on Monday.
Lieutenant-General Keith W. Dayton, the US security co-ordinator between Israel and the Palestinians, on Tuesday convened the first meeting of a security working group of senior Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian officials.
Diplomats involved in the meeting said no breakthroughs were reached to open the Rafah crossing more often. The group planned to meet again in January, they said.
Palestinians technically control the crossing but its operations can be blocked by Israel, which has shut the crossing frequently this year because of what it says are threats from Palestinian militants.
EU officials had earlier warned that the European monitors could be withdrawn from Rafah at the end of their mandate because of concerns about Israeli restrictions. EU foreign ministers called on Israel to "respect previous agreements and ... to do its utmost to ensure that they (Gaza's border crossings) are opened and remain open," the EU monitors said in a statement.
A senior Western diplomat said Rafah would be open two days a week "for now". "Both sides agreed to try their best to keep the crossing open more often," the diplomat said. The Rafah border crossing has been closed for all but 21 days since an Israeli soldier was captured by Palestinian militants on a cross-border raid on June 25.
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