The European Union has made a gesture toward accepting a Palestinian unity government that could include Hamas, a move it hopes can help heal a rift with Fatah. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, speaking to reporters in Jerusalem on Wednesday, used new language to describe the conditions under which the bloc would be prepared to work with a new coalition, should Hamas and Fatah manage to agree to one. Europe still insists Hamas stop fighting Israel, however. The schism between Hamas and Fatah since the Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 has crippled efforts to establish a Palestinian state under a peace deal with Israel and poses a major hurdle to Western-funded reconstruction in Gaza following Israel's offensive against Hamas there this month. Instead of spelling out three long-standing conditions, also adopted by the United States, that Hamas must renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept existing interim peace accords, Solana said only that a new Palestinian government that included Hamas should commit to pursuing a two-state solution. Western powers froze aid to the Palestinian Authority in 2006 when Hamas won a parliamentary election and formed a government without agreeing to the three conditions. Solana said: “Whenever that (reconciliation) takes place, it has to be a team of people that will continue trying to obtain what is the desperation of so many people, which is two states, and two states that can live together.” Mitchell urges stronger truce President Barack Obama's new Mideast envoy promised Wednesday a vigorous push for Israel-Palestinian peace, saying Gaza fighters must end their weapons smuggling and the territory's blockaded borders must be pried open if a ceasefire already marred by violence is to take hold. George Mitchell held his first round of talks with regional leaders to determine the next steps the Obama administration would take toward reviving peace negotiations following Israel's blistering military offensive against Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers. But a flare-up of violence in Gaza underscored the more immediate priority _ shoring up the 10-day-old ceasefire. Hours before Mitchell arrived in Jerusalem, Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza smuggling tunnels in retaliation for a Palestinian bombing on Tuesday that killed an Israeli soldier.
