Israeli official in talks with EU as hostage deadline expires

Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni was to hold talks with EU leaders in Finland today, as tensions in the Middle East increased after a deadline expired for Israel to release Palestinian prisoners.

Livni was to meet prime minister Matti Vanhanen and foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja in Helsinki to discuss the possibility of relaunching the Mideast peace process and the EU’s relations with Israel.

Finland currently hold the European Union presidency.

Palestinian militants yesterday gave Israel less than 24 hours to start releasing 1,500 Palestinian prisoners implying that an Israeli soldier they had captured would be killed if Israel did not comply.

The deadline expired early today with no sign that Israel was considering giving in to the demand to release prisoners, and Israel kept up its attacks on Hamas targets in Gaza.

Yesterday, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said the EU was “very concerned about the negative developments we are now seeing” and urged both parties to solve the conflict.

“We in the commission are ready to assist all the efforts of our member states to give positive contributions,” Barroso said during a visit to Helsinki, after talks with Finnish president Tarja Halonen.