EU foreign policy chief urges easing of embargo

THE international community must pressure Israel to go beyond easing its Gaza embargo and throw open the territory’s long-blockaded borders, the EU foreign policy chief said after a tour of the Hamas-run coastal strip.

Catherine Ashton is the most senior diplomat to visit Gaza since Israel announced earlier this month that it would relax its three-year blockade to allow most consumer goods into the coastal strip of 1.5 million Palestinians.

Her trip came the same day as a flurry of diplomatic meetings in Cairo, where Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is hosting separate talks with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Mideast envoy George Mitchell.