Robin Cook will be in the region

British Foreign Minister Robin Cook said seeking a way to revive the stalled Middle East peace process is a top priority for the UK, the current president of the European Union.

Cook said in a statement Wednesday that Britain has expressed growing concern over the continued impasse in peace negotiations, and dangers that may affect the future of the process and the region's security and stability under the current situation. The UK and EU position towards the peace process is based on three main goals: to break the impasse and resume negotiations, to render aid to the Palestinian economy and to exert intensified efforts for achieving progress, Cook said.

Cook will embark next week on a mission to the region to achieve this end. Meantime, in Bonn, German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel called for a stronger EU role in the ME peace process.

In a statement he made to the German General Entsiger daily, Klinkel also called on the EU to criticize Israel's attitude to the process. Another German daily, Die Welt, referred in a Wednesday article to losses inflicted upon the Israeli occupation troops in south Lebanon at the hands of the Lebanese national resistance men.