Chirac urges EU diplomacy to halt Mideast violence

PARIS, July 21 (Reuters) French President Jacques Chirac today urged the European Union to dispatch the bloc's foreign policy chief Javier Solana back to the West Asia to try to broker a ceasefire in both Lebanon and Gaza.

Chirac said the EU should also do more to bring humanitarian aid to Lebanon, warning that the situation was becoming increasingly desperate for civilians caught in the fighting.

''We have to act swiftly to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe,'' Chirac said in an open letter to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

In a separate letter to the Finnish prime minister, who holds the rotating EU presidency, Chirac said Solana should work in tandem with the United Nations to bring an end to fighting in Lebanon and Gaza.

''The European Union has with these two crises ... a weight and its own credibility which gives it the means to push effectively for solutions,'' Chirac wrote to Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen.

He added that Solana should undertake ''shuttles to the region to meet the necessary people and contribute very swiftly propositions to bring about the necessary conditions for a global and lasting ceasefire in the region''.

Solana made a surprise visit to Lebanon last Sunday and met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy arrived in Beirut today for his second visit to the Lebanese capital in five days for talks aimed at bringing about a ceasefire.

REUTERS DKA ND1636