Israeli-Palestinian Red Cross pact in trouble-Swiss

GENEVA, June 15 (Reuters) A deal aimed at easing entry of the Israeli and Palestinian relief services into the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is in trouble, Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey today said.

''Things are difficult,'' she told a news conference after holding last-minute talks in Israel at the weekend.

''There is a problem with the way the accord between the Israeli and Palestinian aid societies is being put into effect on the ground.'' Difficulties she cited included Palestinian ambulances passing Israeli checkpoints and registering the ambulances.

Neutral Switzerland monitors implementation of the pact clinched in November, under which Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA) recognised the Palestinian Red Crescent as the sole emergency service to operate in the occupied territories.

This in turn helped the movement's adoption of an additional diamond shaped red crystal -- into which the Star of David used by the MDA can be placed -- by 192 signatory states to the 1949 Geneva Convention.

Next week, the same states will be joined by 183 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies to decide whether to amend the statutes to allow the new emblem and admit the aid groups after decades of wrangling. It requires a two-thirds majority.

Switzerland will report its findings to the International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, being held in Geneva from June 20-21.

The talks are expected to hear protests by Arab delegations accusing Israel of breaching the pact, diplomatic sources said.

They come amid worsening violence in the region since January's election of a Hamas-led government which last week scrapped a 16-month truce with Israel.

Olivier Durr of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) conceded the long-sought deal had been ''complicated by a deteriorating situation in the West Asia.

''Our aim is to separate the humanitarian aspects, at the heart of our concerns, from the political aspects which will certainly have an influence on the conference,'' Durr told a separate news briefing.

Chris Lamb of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the world's largest relief agency, said he was ''reasonably optimistic'' an agreement would be reached.

REUTERS SY ND2246