Chirac calls for adopting Mideast 'road map' at Quartet meeting

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, December 12, 2002

Chirac calls for adopting Mideast 'road map' at Quartet meeting

French President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday called for an adoption of a Middle East peace plan at the upcoming Quartet meeting in Washington.

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French President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday called for an adoption of a Middle East peace plan at the upcoming Quartet meeting in Washington.

During a phone talk with his US President George W. Bush, Chirac reaffirmed that the international community must continue to be mobilized in peace efforts in the conflict-torn region, said Chirac's spokeswoman Catherine Colonna.

"He (Chirac) once again expressed the hope that the Quartet meeting in Washington on Dec. 20 will adopt the 'road map', on which Americans, Europeans, Russians and the United Nations have been working for months," she said.

During its ministerial meeting in Washington, the Quartet, an informal mediation group made up of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia, is due to discuss a latest version of the "road map" for peace in the Middle East.

In the road map, major lines of the peace plan are proposed, including the establishment of a Palestinian State no later than 2005.

Israel announced earlier that it is not ready for discussions of such a plan because of its legislative elections that will lasttill the end of January.

The French presidential spokeswoman also said France wishes that the European summit in Copenhagen on Thursday and Friday will adopt a declaration on the Middle East situation.

According to the spokeswoman, US President George W. Bush called Chirac a day after welcoming the leader of Turkey's ruling party, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to the White House.

On his part, Bush called on France to make efforts at pushing the European Union to open accession talks with Turkey and he had told Chirac about "the hopes of Erdogan in the perspective of the European summit meeting," said Colonna.

The European Union did not promise anything but a conditional date to Turkey -- official candidate since 1999. Last week, Franceand Germany jointly suggested that the Union and Turkey start membership negotiations in 2005, which Turkey firmly rejected.

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