Partnership with Europe 'bad'

2008-07-10 09:34

Tripoli - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi warned on Wednesday of a backlash from terrorists if Muslim countries in North Africa accepted a proposal for a partnership with Europe.

Gaddafi reiterated his refusal of a suggestion by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to set up a strategic bloc that unites Mediterranean countries of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, saying it might increase terrorism in the already volatile Middle East.

A partnership with Europe "will deepen the problem of illegal immigration and terrorism in the region", Gaddafi told reporters at his residence in the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

Gaddafi also repeated his refusal to attend an inaugural summit of the Mediterranean Union being held in Paris on Sunday.

The union was Sarkozy's project and would bring together countries on both sides of the volatile Mediterranean rim. But other European Union countries had already scaled back his ambitious vision for the new bloc.

Mediterranean Union 'not balanced'

Gaddafi said that the political and economic weight in the Mediterranean Union was "not balanced" among Arab and European countries. He also said the union would undermine the African Union and the Arab League.

"A membership of eight Islamic nations to a European structure will agitate the Islamists more than before and will entice them to respond to this by every mean," the Libyan leader said.

Sarkozy had envisioned that such a union would focus on economic ties but would also be involved in discussions on issues such as human rights, illegal immigration and Middle East peace.

It would ideally consist of 39 partners - the 27-nation EU, plus a dozen on the Mediterranean's southern shores, from Morocco to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Tensions between Israel and Arab states over the plan had already surfaced ahead of the Paris summit.

"When I visited France, I advised Sarkozy to stay away from the problems of the Middle East, and to instead set up a union that unites the southern (shores) of the Mediterranean and the north," Gaddafi said.

- AP